I have always loved blossom trees. There’s one just a few doors down from us, and every year, I’ve watched it bloom—its delicate petals dancing before they fall. So when we renovated our house in 2022, we decided to plant a blossom tree in our front garden.
This year, for the first time, it has bloomed. Right now, it’s just a small tree with eight thin, spindly branches, but it’s starting to shine. Behind it stands a towering, well-established blossom tree, strong, grand and unmoving.
As I admired our little tree today, a man walking past with his dog said, “That’s got some years left to grow, hasn’t it?”
I replied, “Yes, but it has to start somewhere."
If we don’t give it the opportunity to grow—to go through this stage of being a fragile twig—it will never become strong. If we cut it down now, before it’s had the chance to establish its roots, it will never reach its full potential.
And then it hit me—this is exactly what it’s like to grow a business.
Every successful business, every thriving brand, every confident entrepreneur once started as something small, uncertain and new. No one remembers when the grand tree was just a twig; they only see its strength now. But the truth is, the early stages matter. The challenges, the slow beginnings, the uncertain steps, they are all part of becoming something incredible.
So if you’re in the early days of your business—if you feel small, unsure or impatient for growth, remember this, every mighty tree was once just a sapling. Keep going. Keep growing. One day, people will look at what you’ve built in awe, forgetting the struggles you faced to get there. But you will remember, and you’ll know it was worth it.
