The lesson of the Chinese bamboo is classic, powerful and simple. It can be applied to anything you want to achieve in life.

You can’t SEE a bamboo seed grow for a very long time. Perseverance will yield a most desirable result, but you must have faith that your time and effort are not being wasted.

Here’s the lesson:

You prepare the soil, pick the right spot, then plant the Chinese Bamboo seed.

You water it and wait. But you wait an entire year and nothing appears.

No bud, no twig, nothing.

So you keep watering and protecting the area and taking care of the future plant, and you wait some more.
child waiting

You wait another year and nothing still happens. Okay, you are a persistent person not prone to giving up, so you keep on watering.
water hose

You water, check the soil, start talking to the ground, maybe even click your heels in some kind of growing dance you read about in the National Geographic.

Another year passes and still no sign of growth.

It has been three years. Should you give up?

Someone told you that it might take a while to really see the fruits of your efforts, so you keep on keeping on.

More water, more talk, more dancing. The neighbors are wondering.

And another year passes. No tree.

You now make a decision.

If there is no tree on this date one year from now you will stop watering.
calendar

Period.

So you begin year number five with the same passion as day number one.
5 cupcake

You water, you wait. You keep watering and keep waiting.

You water some more and then, could it be? Is it really?

Yep, there it is, something sticking out of the dirt.
bamboo shoot

You come back the next day and WOW it has really grown!bamboo growing

In fact you come back each day for about six weeks and finally the Chinese Bamboo tree stops growing—but it is over 80 feet tall!
tall bamboo

Yes, 80 feet in six weeks! Well, not really. It is 80 feet in five years.

The point is simple. If you had given up for even the shortest period of time, there would be no tree. It took almost impossible persistence.

The Chinese Bamboo tree is there for one reason and one reason only—because you never gave up on it.

-courtesy of Bamboo “Goddess”

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Filed under: Asset Management and Protection • Personal Development

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