Bouncing Back

The idea of planting seedlings has long been one of my philosophies about success. Basically, you never know in advance what specific tactics will lead to success in a new venture, so it's important to lay down many paths leading to your goal. I have always thought of this as planting seedlings. In nature, not every new life will have the strength and viability to grow -- some seedlings will become mighty trees, while others will die out before ever sprouting their first leaves. Ideas are very much like these seedlings. Some ideas will flourish as a result of their purely practical nature, others will find strong support and sponsorship to nourish them until they gain in strength, and many others will fall to the wayside from lack of interest or resources. Let me show you a few examples of this concept I call planting seedlings.



Career Seedlings: When you're graduating from college and looking for your first job, you probably won't have strong corporate contacts to use as a job search network. You'll be starting from scratch. In this case, there may be dozens of companies with positions similar to what you're seeking. But how do you find your way in? Well, of course, you send out resumes, answer employment ads in the newspaper and online, and use your college recruiting center to interview on campus. In addition, you may use less common tactics such as offering to serve in a free internship or directly contacting hiring managers that you've seen showcased in the media. Each of these actions is a seedling you've planted. Each one may blossom into the perfect job opportunity you're seeking. What if you overlooked some of these tactics? You would be reducing the number of opportunities to be evaluated against your strengths and skills and diminishing your possibility of finding the perfect job. Thus, the more seedlings you plant, the more likely you'll be to find that one great job.

Job Seedlings: This was one of my trademark characteristics during my successful corporate career. Let's say that you have a truly great idea, but it's not an obvious fit in your company, and it will take some thought for the organization to see the significant benefits you believe are there. You can talk to your boss, and maybe she'll see the wisdom of your idea right away. However, more likely, your boss will be swamped that day and distracted with too many immediate problems. She may just set the idea aside, thinking she'll give it more thought at some uncertain future date. Assuming that your boss didn't hate the idea, you can help your boss and your organization put some energy behind your idea by talking it around to as many people as possible. Tell your friends in other departments (who will mention it to their peers and bosses), discuss its merits with your suppliers, mention it to your customers (where appropriate), and so on. When you have several people evaluating an idea in parallel, the concept can quickly gain popularity and approval across the organization. When you plant the seedlings of your idea, you'll increase the chance that someone with authority and influence will be able to give the idea the immediate attention it needs in order to benefit your company.

[Please note: I'm NOT advocating an end run on your boss, where she'll be forced to accept the idea because you've created outside pressure on her to implement the idea. This strategy should be used delicately to support the legitimate review of ideas within a busy organization.]

Financial Seedlings: Ask any financial planner for the core concepts of investment planning, and one of the top ideas will always be... financial diversification. Diversification is essentially the same concept as planting seedlings. If you take your entire nest egg and split it up across a dozen or more investments, you are reducing your risk of losing all your money on one bad investment choice. By diversifying, you'll be able to explore different types of investments and learn where you are most successful at finding winners. Over time, you'll choose more and more investments with profitable outcomes, and your portfolio will grow consistently and successfully. By planting seedlings across several investment choices, you'll increase your odds of growing a strong investment portfolio and minimizing the number of investment choices which fail.

So, the next time you're considering a new venture -- whether at work, for a career change, for your finances, or for any other personal objective -- think of how you might build multiple paths to a successful outcome. And then, plant as many seedlings as possible which have the potential to grow into your success.