When I was a little girl, I used to love to play "name the cloud." I
bet you played this too. I remember lying on my back in the yard and
watching as the clouds passed overhead. As the wind blew the clouds
across the sky, the clouds would change shape. It was more fun to
play with someone else, because two people could look at the same cloud
and see something different.
Look, a three-headed dragon just floated by. No, now it's a cow with a
really big hump on the back. Wait, it's now a celery stalk racing
across the sky. Oh, no. The cloud is gone. What fun it was.
OK, I will admit that I played this game earlier this week while
watching out my office window. Clouds came, and clouds went. All the
while the wind was blowing across my viewing screen, they
shape-shifted. And then I noticed the tree.
The same wind that was blowing on the clouds and causing them to
shape-shift was just merely bending the branches of the tree. The tree
bent with the wind, but it still remained a tree. The tree didn't
shape-shift, nor did it fade away. It remained true, strong, and
straight because it had a good root system holding it up.
The cloud is a cloud because it was created that way, and the tree was
created to be a tree. But you as a business owner can choose how you
are going to do business. Are you going to be a shape-shifter like the
cloud, or are you going to remain rooted like the tree?
All of us have winds that blow through our lives. The winds are
inevitable. There will be times when your business grows - you reach
more clients, you receive more orders. And there will be times when
your business slows. There will be times when everything just seems to
be clicking along at a smooth pace. And there will be times when
everything seems to go wrong at once.
When the wind blows through your business, will you immediately give up
on what you are doing and look for another business opportunity to try
for a while - shape-shifting as you cross the sky? Will you give up
saying there's too much wind for you to be prosperous and fade away
entirely?
Or, will you bend with the wind and only allow it to affect your
branches and not who you are or what you are doing? Will you remain
fixed and stable because you have laid a solid root foundation in your
business and built it slowly and steadily?
In the end, the choice is up to you. As for me, I'm choosing to be a
tree. What's your choice?
About the Author
Sharon Dalton Williams is the author of "How to Succeed and Live a Full
Life." Learn how to reach the goals you have set for your life and
business. Surf to http://www.sdwassociates.com to order your copy.
Learn how to use what is uniquely you in building your business.
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