I have often shared the story of the fascinating discovery from an earth science project called Biosphere 2. While there was many discoveries and insights from that project, the one that caught the most attention is the trees that were grown inside the self-contained indoor artificial environment. The plants and trees grew OK but were noticeably much weaker than their counterparts in the outside world, most notable were the trees.
The trees never grew strong roots that secured itself well into the dirt and the trees can easily be pushed over and pulled out of the ground with much less effort than their outside counterparts. This baffled the scientist and it took a while to discover the reason. That reason is that the trees inside lack one stress component, and that is the wind.
The wind, it was discovered, provided a critical role for the trees by introducing variable stress against them, for which the tree countered by growing stress wood that was strengthening the content of the wood itself in order for it to grow strong trunks and branches and secure the roots more securely into the ground.
This is a great analogy to use when discussing to yourself and others that outside resistance and stress that is blown on us will inevitably make us stronger and able to resist the bombardment of stresses that will always come from our work and personal lives.
Business is no different in that it will always face an environment where wind is always there to blow you down. The mistake would be to try to insular yourself from this by trying to protect your business from the outside world or to create an illusion of an artificial environment that doesn’t challenge you to face the stresses of the marketplace by ignoring it or immune to it. Be outside and let the wind make your business resilient.
