Perseverance story: What life lesson can you learn growing tomatoes

The young apprentice met with his older mentor for his weekly chat at his home hopping for a quick lesson to help him pick himself up. “You seem troubled,” observed the old man.  “You know that project that I’ve been working on? It just didn’t work and I couldn’t get the result that I was after,” complained the young apprentice. “That happens sometimes,” said his mentor, shrugging his shoulders.

“But I worked so hard, I deserved a better outcome,” responded the apprentice with frustration. The old man sat in silence for a moment.  And after some time he said “Let me show you something,”  as he jumped to his feet and led his protegé outside. “See this dead tomato plant?”

“Yes, what about it?” asked the apprentice.  “I did everything right when I planted it. I watered it, fertilized it and made sure that there were no weeds around it, but it still died,” answered the old man. “So what?” asked the young apprentice indignantly. “No matter how much you want to control the final outcome, you can’t. All that you can do is control the controllable, take responsibility for doing all that you can the rest is not in your hands.” answered the old man.

“So what do I do? If success is not guaranteed, should I just give up?” asked the apprentice looking troubled. The old man chuckled to himself and led his young apprentice back inside saying “That’s the dilemma, isn’t it? And it’s one that gives too many people an excuse for not doing anything remarkable with their lives.  If you can’t be sure of succeeding, why bother?”

“Why indeed!” said the apprentice as he walked towards the front door to leave. “Before you go, could you get me something from the pantry?” asked the old man. “OK,” said the apprentice.  When he opened the pantry door, he was confronted with a basket full of large, juicy, bright red tomatoes.

The old man observed the apprentice’s surprised face and said, “Of course, not every tomato plant died. If you consistently do the right thing, you will dramatically increase your chances of delivering phenomenal outcomes. But if you give up due to one or two negative results, you’ll never reap a reward.”

And with that in mind, the young apprentice went back to his work determined to increase his chances of the outcome he wanted.