Most often, a small business owner starts a business with his family, a small
core group of friends and associates, and some small town business contacts. To
those business owners who see the wisdom of keeping and committing his business
still intact with these roots, most often than not, their business grows and
bears much fruit. The growth of the business certainly depends also on other
factors, but if this one factor is kept intact, then it is likely that a small
business will grow and expand more than what it was when it started. It may
not grow into a full-blown corporation, but it will nevertheless grow into something
that would serve more people and be of substantial service to the small town
community or to society in general.
* * * He who is faithful in small things will be faithful in big things * * *
True story
This is the story of a Chinese businessman who came to the Philippines to start
his own business. Since he did not know the native language, which was Tagalog,
he wanted to study it in order to run his business. He soon met a Tagalog woman
who was selling some wares, and made a business deal with her. He told her that he
would give her some place in his business if she on her part would teach him
Tagalog. The woman agreed. The businessman soon learned Tagalog, and he always
let the woman sell her wares in his main business establishment. This Chinese business
owner soon started a small company in which my father was one of the pioneers. My
father was a hard-working man who was very faithful in all things. He stuck
and committed himself to this company that this Chinese businessman was building.
Soon, the department my father was in was divided into many more departments, and
the company steadily grew. It was like a biological cell that kept on dividing and
multiplying. Now, this Chinese businessman is the owner of a big corporation that
extends its business to many nations in Southeast Asia.
A commitment to build
In general, there is the temptation to burn bridges - to cut off relationships
that could otherwise have been rejuvenated, revived and saved. But this story
of the Chinese businessman teaches us that keeping our core and root relationships
in the business will help the business to grow (among other factors), be productive,
and bear much fruit. What if the Chinese businessman suddenly severed the ties
with the woman who was teaching him Tagalog? What if he suddenly dissolved the
whole department in which my father was working and laid off everyone in it? What
may probably resulted is not what we see today: that woman who taught him Tagalog
still lives and is given high privileges in the main building of the corporation.
And that big Chinese businessman also rewarded and gave honor to my father with
a 30-year service Bayanihan award (Bayanihan
is the Tagalog term for "helping one another" - the image of bayanihan is people
carrying a small nipa house and transferring it to another place in the village)
and the retirement money which my father used to start his own business. And much
more than this, his business is not only a national business but became a multi-national
corporation in Southeast Asia.
Everything starts small.
Growth takes time. We need to prune prudently. And there is a need to stick
to the end
Everything starts small
We cannot create something big all at once. We need to start small. And
everything must be taken step by step. No shortcuts. There is no wisdom in
overnight successes. Usually, when we get money easily, it also is spent
speedily and lost overnight. The harder we earn our money, the more it is
saved, and kept for rainy days and emergency purposes. So we have to stick to
the wisdom of starting small, and to decide and act conservatively - changing
things as little as possible so as to keep to our direction and the vision of
our enterprise.
Growth takes time
A fruit tree does not grow overnight. It takes a lot of days, weeks, months,
and sometimes even years. And before it reaches maturity and full height, it
will also take time before it bears fruit. It needs a lot of rain and sunlight.
So it is with our business. We must learn to wait and to patiently tend it, so
that it may grow to full maturity and be productive and bear fruit. If we can
make our business like the olive tree, then all the much better. Do you know
that the olive tree can subsist on only a small amount of water? And that they
live for centuries on? Some of the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemani when
Jesus was in agony before facing his execution on the cross, is still alive and
present there! If our business were like the olive trees, that despite the
hard times when there is so little to live upon, it can still grow and bear fruit,
then indeed our business will survive all sorts of trials and difficulties.
We need to prune prudently
Not all of our root and core relationships in the business may be beneficial for
the business. There are some relationships that must be pruned prudently in
order for the business to grow. We need to really study well what these are, in
order that we do not damage, or stunt the business. Vine growers know the wisdom
of pruning the vines in order that they would bear more fruit. So it is with our
businesses. We need to see which relationships are damaging not only the business,
but also damaging the other parties concerned. If by severing or 'pruning' the
relationship, both parties will grow: the business and the client or employee -
then though it may be painful - as in all cutting experiences - it must be done
so that there may be growth and progress.
There is a need to stick to the end
There is a wisdom in "never giving up". It was said that when Winston Churchill
was asked to make a speech to a group of graduating students, he only said a few
words: "Never, never, never, never give up!" Imagine such a persevering and a very
determined attitude in so great a man. All we thus need to do is not to give up
on what we decided ourselves to do. We must look always towards the vision that
inspired us. We must relish always the dreams that inspired and spurred us on to
undertake the enterprise we feel is a kind of a mission we have to fulfill - for
the sake of our family or for the greater good of our society. Probably the
greatest example in our time of a person who never gave up and who stuck it to
the end, was the late Holy Father, John Paul II. He showed us how it is possible
to follow Jesus, who "never came down from the Cross!"
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