You Can’t Rush a Raspberry

A few years ago I planted 20 raspberry vines. 

The person who sold them to me told me not to expect berries the first year. They need to root the first year. Fair enough. 

The second year I did get some berries. My total yield that year was less than a pint from 20 plants!

The third year was better; I got several pints. 

This year I have berries galore!

Of course, Brad, it takes time for vines to mature and produce fruit. This is not a mind-blowing story; we all know this. 

If only I were as patient with my business!

Yet somehow we don’t feel the same way about our businesses. 

For most of my history running my business, I had a lot of anxiety about why it wasn’t growing. Or, if it was growing, why it wasn’t growing faster. 

At the beginning, I realized that I needed to put down some roots. But later, every time I experienced a setback—the economy sagged, I lost a client or two, a team member quit, or I got bored, frustrated, and impatient—I’d start anxiously pushing, and that’s where I made some of my most expensive mistakes.

Anxious pushing felt productive. But looking back, it was just an expression of my anxiety. It was me shouting at the universe, “Make it go faster!”

To avoid the unpleasant feeling of anxiety, I might take a big risk. I launched a membership site, tried to create courses, and made a foray into fine arts businesses. These were desperation moves to accelerate growth. All were costly failures. 

What worked instead

Instead, I’ve noticed progress when I stepped back, assessed the current situation, and then tried some experiments to adjust to changes in the marketplace or in what I want out of my business. Instead of anxiously pushing, I pause and reflect. Activating my curiosity surfaces options that come from possibility, instead of fear. 

Back to my raspberries for a minute. There’s very little I can do to make my vines produce more raspberries. But in my business, I have levers I can pull, and initiatives I can put resources behind. When fear is in control, those levers feel desperate (to me, and likely to the marketplace). When I’m coming from possibility, it’s more purposeful and measured. 

Where could you convert your anxious pushing into experiments to see what’s possible?