Some years ago, I bought an olive tree in a softly toned bluey-green pot to remind me of my years living in Athens.
It was trimmed to a beautiful globe shape and I looked forward to it growing into a strong and productive tree.
Even though I don’t actually like olives…
The seasons came and went and it sort of flowered every spring.
But, frustratingly, no olives appeared.
I concluded (made up) that it was too young to produce a crop.
The years passed and the same disappointing results appeared annually like clockwork.
It finally dawned on me a couple of months ago that maybe just watering the pot wasn’t enough.
During lockdown, we had purchased a hotbin and the compost that we had created was now ready to use.
So we filled up the pot with plenty of crumbly lusciousness.
Within days Our Olive, as she is affectionately called, had bulked out her leaves and was looking far more robust.
Then this week we spotted a few scant olives positively bursting from the stems.
What I learnt from this was indeed a valuable lesson.
What we tend, nurture, focus on and feed well will recover quickly and thrive.
It’s the same for relationships, health and business.
Likewise, without proper focus on our business, there eventually comes a point where we cannot continue to thrive.
Our business needs systems which operate seamlessly in the background, saving us time, energy and money.
Then we can focus with clarity on the pursuit of delivering what we do to a world class level.
Our Olive taught me that a failure to tend the roots of our business will bedevil growth and starve the core.
In turn, that will ultimately prevent it from bearing the sumptuous fruit of our labours.
And that of course is fulfilment, serving our community to the best of our ability and creating a decent income to support our family.
If you know that your business is in need of some serious nurturing, I’ve got plenty of energy and ideas to make that happen.
We have even grown a fabulous Osteo support team dedicated to making sure you easily thrive again.
We’re a bit like compost for your soul.
Simply pop yourself in my diary and let’s discuss your options.
Have a fabulous day.
