For growth of your business, look to nature

Written by: Maarten van Duijn

Albert Einstein said, “Look deep into nature, and you will understand everything better. So it is with growth. When it comes to growing your business, we can learn from nature.

Everything that doesn’t grow in nature dies. This is a harsh observation, but often true. Thus, growth is essential for our survival and therefore for the future. That is also why it is essential for an entrepreneur to grow his business. Not as an end in itself, but as a condition for your right to exist. That certainly applies to me as an entrepreneur and to our company as well.

Growth creates new opportunities for our people and for myself as an entrepreneur. I myself try every time to pick up something I haven’t done before. Taking focused time to do so and picking up new things leaves less room for the existing. It is therefore important to set aside time to experiment. The existing things, which you then get less of, you can transfer to others in the process. And the nice thing is that these are often things that are new to your teammates and help them grow.

It is important to spend at least as much time on nutrition as on growth itself. Another beautiful lesson from nature. If you spend more time developing your people, the result is that your people will grow. In our company that is also the only way to really grow. Only when the team develops, and progresses, does our company and subsequently our sales grow. Grass also doesn’t grow faster if you start pulling on it.

And yes, sometimes you also have to dare to prune to bring new branches to life. Another great lesson from nature. Pruning at the right time and in the right way creates beautiful growth again afterwards.

A wise man that Albert Einstein, but perhaps we can be just as wise as we look at nature to understand more.

This column appeared in the Spring edition of INTO business Alkmaar.