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I read a story about
growing corn (go figure) and immediately saw
implications for business owners growing their
enterprise.
It's called "The Good
Corn". The author is unknown.
There was a farmer who
grew award-winning corn. Each year, he
entered his corn in the state fair where it won
a blue ribbon.
One year, a newspaper
reporter interviewed him and learned something
interesting about how he grew it. The reporter
discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn
with his neighbors.
"How can you afford to
share you best seed corn with your neighbors
when they are entering corn in competition with
yours each year?" the reporter asked.
"Why sir", said the
farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up
pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from
field to field. If my neighbors grow
inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily
degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to
grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow
good corn."
That farmer is very much
aware of the connectedness of life. His
corn (business) cannot improve unless his
neighbor's corn (business) also improves.
So it is in other
dimensions. Those who chose to be at peace must
help their neighbors to be at peace. Those
who choose to live well must help others to live
well, for the value of a life is measured by the
lives it touches. And those who choose to
be happy must help others to find happiness for
the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare
of all.
The lesson for each of us
is this: if we are to grow good corn
(succeed in business) we must help our neighbors
grow good corn.
What does this mean for
you?
1. Help your colleagues
be more efficient.
When they are freed up
from mundane, non-productive tasks, they will
have more time and energy to collaborate with
you and develop programs or services you can
offer your combined clients.
2. Partner with
your 'neighbors' for products & services
While your neighbor sells
the same 'corn' as you, s/he might also produce
and sell things you don't...and vice versa.
Some coach colleagues of mine who have expertise
in different areas, have taken those skills and
developed a really compelling program that
people are signing up for in droves. By
combining their talent, they were able to
capitalize on something that the market is
really hungry for that neither would have been
able to do alone.
3. Hold fast to
the Law of Abundance
Believe that there is an
abundance of opportunities, an abundance of
prospects and an abundance of ways you can help
people. The key is finding where those three
things intersect.
We can all grow and share
our special brand of great corn. Have faith,
work strategically and partner for success.
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