Step 25 - Joel Salatin On Nature Laughing Last, The Respect Of Seasons and The Terrible Twos

This lesson teaches us the law of nature, that strikes regardless of our plans. There is an outside bigger picture, which whom we belong to. We are just part of it with our plans and it is better to be aware of it, because whenever we find ourselves in a fist fight with mother nature, we will most certainly loose, since nature is the teacher of last resort.

Similarly to the metaphor of nature, there are naturally occurring cycles of success. The media bias, which also includes our eyes as media, perceive solely the Fall in this cycle, because we tend to see the harvest. The people who have made it.

But in all actuality all success stories happen slow.

The average millionaire takes 10 to 12 years to reach his success. Even though the media bias makes us believe that success happens over night and our false believe lets us expect that success has to come within 6 months of our undertaking.

But nature laughs last, and if nature says that it takes that long, then who are we to fight nature? Therefore we need to stay in the business long enough. We need to find the one thing and hold on to it and never let it go. We can bounce around products but not around industries.

The way a business progress is like a child. The first years it keeps you awake at night and in the terrible two it drives you crazy. But after a lot of investment, children will grow and start supporting you when you are old. We don't want a child that goes from 2 to 20 years old. We should not be like most entrepreneurs who look at a one year old business and are complaining, that it is not paying the bills.

Together of our understanding on how nature works, we need to also understand natures timing and get and understanding and respect of seasons.

Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. Media bias has made us acclimated to think that we are always in our Fall of our lives.

In Winter it is the time of planning, finding the industry. Of accumulating knowledge. Of rest and where we charge our batteries. It is also the time of darkness and coldness and it is easy to loose faith in winter, but as sure as nature pushes us into the winter, it will push us out of winter, if we survive it. Many people don't make it out, get stuck and depressed here. Some people call this the 10 dark years or the 10.000 hours.

In Spring we start to experiment. We might plant seeds and observe. Replant them if it rained too much or the soil froze. We are not yet sure if what we do is correct, but we are slowly selecting the product.

Summer is the time of activity, where the product is selected and we work really hard, putting in the 100 hour work week. Where we know what we do and where we get less sleep and loose more energy. Where we put all eggs in one basket and watching that basket.

Fall is the time to enjoy the harvest and to collect the rewards. Most people get this time in their 40's, 50's or 60's.

We can't quicken the curve too quickly. Everything needs to go through childhood. The good news is the light at the end of the tunnel. We have to remove all the timeliness of instant success that the media bias and mass media bias is putting in our mind.

By being too impatient we will kill the two year old child. Babies will be babies. If we start pushing on nature too much, we will get an equal of opposite reaction. And we don't want to get lessons of nature, because nature is the teacher of last resort. It is the meanest of all teachers.

This doesn't mean that we have to be slow, but that we have to respect the seasons.

Also there is no free lunch. Everything is a cause and effect.

Questions

1. What was a winter in your life, and knowing what you know now what would you have done differently?

   In my first entrepreneurial undertaking I should have counseled more counselors when I was in research of the product. I should have been more aware of my surroundings and picked my business partners more carefully. Also adapting faster in this area, when the soil needs to be chosen and the seeds to be planned. I should have got more mentors who could have warned me about pitfalls.

2. What was a spring in your life, and knowing what you know now what would you have done differently?

   Spring was the time when we experimented with the product. We experimented if there was any demand.

3. What was a summer in your life, and knowing what you know now what would you have done differently?

   Here we should have build and sold the product. We didn't become active here, because tasks were not properly assigned. Organization was bad. Production was slow. Co-Founders had the 2 hours a week mentality. The result was pretty sad, but it could have been avoided, if I had adapted quicker in spring when I became aware of the problems.

4. What was a fall in your life, and knowing what you know now what would you have done differently?

   I can recollect my university time. When I had put a lot of planning and work to my math and statistics exams and finally got the A's that I deserved. I was happy about those rewards, because I deserved them, due to my hard work I had put into. Every day, literally countless hours studying in the library and at home. In every available minute.

5. What season are you in now and what are you going to do differently now?

   I am again in winter right now. Figuring out a new product on my own. ("Growing businesses online, using measurement systems.") and reorganizing the previous business ("Improving businesses using customer interaction") with new partners and maybe new investors. This time I shall adapt more quickly to problems I'll encounter and generally stay close to these 67 steps.