A LinkedIn connection that came from online marketing sent me an email message about his new foray into social media strategy. After reviewing his blog, reading his postings, watching video testimonials about what he has done for local clients, etc. I was impressed. His email continued that he was looking forward to 2012 as he planted a lot of good seeds.
I immediately replied to his email with an analogy I always used to use when I was on the road doing training sessions for my network marketing company. The analogy was about a monk who was given the chore of watering a bamboo tree every morning and evening.
This monk performed his task with gusto during the first week. But at week’s end, he failed to see a sprout. So he continued to do this the second week. Still no sprout at the end of the second week. He started to get discouraged but continued his twice daily routine for a third and then a fourth week. To his dismay, no visible sign of life. Deciding to give it one more week before he threw in the towel, he continued. At the end of this fifth week, no sprout.
He went to see the abbott, the head of the monastery, and told him of all his efforts with nothing to show for it. Obviously he wanted the abbott to suggest a different task for him to do. Instead, the abbott said to continue doing exactly what he had been doing over the previous five weeks.
He left the abbott’s office, still discouraged, but decided that he would do as the abbott instructed him to do.
The next day, Monday, he performed his watering routine. The day after that he noticed the slightest sprout peeking out of the ground. Day three of his sixth week, this tiny sprout suddenly grew to be six inches tall. By the fourth day, it grew to a full foot. By Saturday, it was a full grown – 40 foot – bamboo tree.
I tied this analogy to his planting of good seeds in 2011 which he intended to see the results of in 2012.
(Great thinking in this age of fast and immediate rewards.)
How does this fit your network marketing business? You could be doing your business for weeks, months, years and have little to show for it. But keep “watering” your business daily. You may not be seeing any sprouts but by your continuing in your business, unseen roots are growing below the surface.
Somewhere, somehow expect these roots to support a large business, your large business, your towering “bamboo tree” for years to come.
