Entrepreneurship is a lonely journey filled with doubts. Knowing how to combat depression will keep you on track much longer.
2 weeks ago, I started feeling depressed, wondering what I was doing wrong and why I wasn’t getting the kind of results others were testifying to. Then I took a break and chose to rest.
While resting, I was thinking and asking God what I should do. Architecture practice is unlike regular commercial businesses where you advertise or market your business with no restrictions. Then I began to understand what I’m sharing with you below.
It was this understanding that calmed me down and I have not been the same again. Read below.
I want to grow, I do not want to trend. Trends come and go and if you trend, it does not last. When you grow like an Iroko tree, it only takes fire to bring you down, because even if you cut it down, it will sprout again (Job 14:7). I will use my blogging career as an example in this post.
As we journey through life, our daily activities are like planted seeds. Some of us are planting maize, some are planting cocoyam, and some are planting mango. The bottom line is that we are all planting something.
The time frame assigned to the growth and maturity of each crop type differs. Some plants will grow and mature, bearing fruits in 3 months, while others will take as long as 5 years to start bearing fruits.
We still patiently wait for these 5 years, to start harvesting.
In life, nobody fully knows the potential of the crop type they planted, that’s why you will see someone go into business and the next thing is that they have blown. Another will go into business, and it will take up to 4 years to start yielding.
The first example is like one who planted maize. In 3 months, they are already harvesting. Maize planting could also be a job employment, the fruits come in a short time. While the second person is like the person who planted a pear or mango.
The secret here lies in patience and perseverance. Every day, you go to where you planted (office or business) and you water it, remove weeds, put manure, apply insecticides and you close for the day. Tomorrow, the manual task continues.
Set parameters to judge if what you planted is growing. For a tree, you will see it sprout, stem up, branches, leaves, it will get to your knee-length, then your shoulder, then it’s taller than you, and so on.
In blogging, I had to set up these parameters in checking if the blog is growing. I work on guest posting, backlinks, monitor my analytics, etc (that’s weeding, manure, and fertilizer).
Don’t be weary of the manual task, and don’t be distracted. If you allow the distractions to come in and you abandon what you planted because you heard that it’s better somewhere else, you will galivant from pillar to post, and when you see others reaping their fruits and you try to go back to that tree you abandoned, it will be difficult for you to revive the tree because it has died.
You will have to start again from the beginning and most times the regret puts you in a desperate mood or a static mood (inertia), where you are fed up with life.
Now when you are harvesting as a maize planter, because of the short time frame it took you, don’t look down on the mango planter. Your harvest may come sooner but it requires your effort to plant again and again if you must have a harvest time.
It may take a pear or mango planter a longer time to harvest any fruit but when they start harvesting, it’s bigger and they don’t ever stress themselves needing to plant again and again.
Now there is another group of people, planters who plant but the evils of the soil destroy their crops. They are as hardworking as the maize, pear, or mango planter but they never have anything to show for it.
The problem could be in the seedlings or with the soil. You may not be able to help them but never make them feel useless. Nobody knows it all. You just might be lucky to have a good soil or viable seedlings.
Some people have been able to identify activities that give a maize yield and the ones that give a mango yield. Some others have learned to utilize both planting systems.
Some have learned to plant maize at the same time as mango, in order words, they have learned to start creating passive streams of income as soon as they got a job.
If you are able to identify these planting systems, it’s considered best to plant all 3 types of crops. The maize provides you with immediate sustainability, the cocoyam provides annual sustenance, and the mango is passive sustenance and also serves as what you can pass down to your children.
But whichever way you choose, be kind to other planters.
This post is to encourage you in combating the depression that comes with the waiting season as you go about your daily business.
Which type of planter are you? A maize, cocoyam, or mango planter?
