About three years ago, I tried my hand at vegetable gardening. This would be my second attempt and it proved no different than the first. The results were dismal. We carved out space in our backyard, added a few bags of good soil to the sandy stuff our home builder put down and we got a lot of nothing.
In addition to having sand for soil we also lacked pollinators; the lovely critters that go from flower to flower and well pollinate.
Now I could have gotten out there with a Q-Tip and helped the process but I was one defeated vegetable grower.
This year I was determined to grow something other than weeds.
So I started my vegetables in pots using really good potting soil and that’s where they’ll stay.
Yesterday I noticed that our seven-month old puppy acts as a pollinator. His nose is always smelling my plants and I realized he was assuming the role of CPO…chief pollinating officer.
One day this summer, my family will enjoy the collards, tomatoes, strawberries, bell peppers and okra I planted and Kobe the Labrador pollinated.
Kobe reminded me that sometimes in business and in life things don’t always go the way you planned.
- Employees quit.
- Parts are discontinued.
- You don’t get the sale.
- Equipment fails.
- The IRS wants to see receipts.
- Customers get irate.
- Shipments get delayed.
- Cash flow flows a little less freely.
- Hackers hack your servers.
- Insurance premiums go up…again.
- And last quarter’s sales didn’t reach target.
Those things happening don’t mean you walk away from your business, it means you do some creative problem solving.
And sometimes solutions are in unlikely places and take you completely by surprise.
Who knew Kobe the Labrador could do the job originally assigned to another?
It definitely pays to know your staff and that doesn’t mean having access to their Facebook accounts either–I’ll digress now. You may have staff sitting on a talent or skill that benefits your business and strengthens company loyalty. There maybe a vendor with a side business or has an excellent referral that can be used as part of your creative solution.
If you’re facing challenges, check to see what resources you immediately have access too that could help solve the problem.
For me, it was a very curious seven-month old Labrador named Kobe.
