Success is Like a Chinese Bamboo Tree

In the Far East, there is a tree called the Chinese bamboo tree. This remarkable tree is different from most trees in that it doesn’t grow in the usual fashion. While most trees grow steadily over a period of years, the Chinese bamboo tree doesn’t break through the ground for the first four years. Then, in the fifth year, an amazing thing happens – the tree begins to grow at an astonishing rate. In fact, in a period of just five weeks, a Chinese bamboo tree can grow to a height of 90 feet. It’s almost as if you can actually see the tree growing before your very eyes.

The Chinese Bamboo Tree teaches us long term success lessons on patience, faith, perseverance, growth & development and most surprising of all… human potential!

A Question I want to focus on is does the Chinese Bamboo Tree grow 90 feet in five weeks, or overs four and a half years? Did the Chinese Bamboo Tree lie dormant for four years only to grow exponentially in the fifth? Or, was the little tree growing underground, developing a root system strong enough to support its potential for outward growth in the fifth year and beyond? The answer is, of course, obvious. Had the tree not developed a strong unseen foundation it could not have sustained its life as it grew.

The same principle is the same for people. People, who patiently toil towards worthwhile dreams and goals, building strong character while overcoming adversity and challenge, grow the strong internal foundation to handle success. While the 'get-rich-quickers' and lottery winners usually are unable to sustain unearned sudden wealth.

Many people whom have there own business are like farmers of these trees. If they had dug up this little seed every year to see if it was growing, they would have stunted the Chinese Bamboo tree’s growth as surely as a caterpillar is doomed to a life on the ground if it is freed from its struggle inside a cocoon prematurely. The struggle in the cocoon is what gives the future butterfly the wing power to fly, just as tension against muscles as we exercise strengthen our muscles, while muscles left alone will soon atrophy.

The Chinese Bamboo Tree is a perfect parable to our own experience with personal growth and change (whether we are working on ourselves or coaching others). It is never easy. It’s slow to show any progress. It’s frustrating and unrewarding at times. But it is worth it….especially if we can be patient and persistent.

I have a friend named Alex, whom achieve a great amount of success in less than 12 months right before my eyes. I asked, "How did you reach such a goal in just 12 months?" He told me that his efforts were over almost 8 years. The fruit that I witness did not start producing at that rate I was witnessing until that year.

This is the critical variable in attaining new skills – in developing ourselves and others. It is our ability to stay persistent even when we are unable to see any growth on the surface…. just like the Chinese Bamboo Tree. These are the main points we Learn from the Chinese Bamboo Tree:

• Stay focused and continue to believe in what we are doing even when we don’t see immediate results In a culture driven by instant gratification – this is our biggest challenge.
• Tell each other (and our children), remember to “Keep trying! and NEVER give up!” The change may be slow – even invisible at times – but suddenly, as in the case of the Chinese Bamboo Tree, we will surprise ourselves.
• Keep your faith in this important work. The growers of the Chinese Bamboo Tree have faith that if they keep watering and fertilizing the ground, the tree will break through. Well, you must have the same kind of faith in your bamboo tree, whether it is to run a successful business, win a Pulitzer Prize, raise well-adjusted children, or what have you.

We live in a quick-fix society. Everyone seems to get frustrated if we have to wait more than 2 minutes for a coffee or a stop light to change. We want instant solutions to every complex problem and every fractured relationship. In short – we want it all now! I want to share an old poem that  is over 100 years old.

“The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Toiled ever upward through the night.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow