Cultivating a healthy, green lawn has always been a challenge because we live under a canopy of live oak, magnolia, and other trees which limits sunlight reaching the ground. We sodded numerous times – sometimes paying people to cover the yard with little squares of grass and other times doing the backbreaking work ourselves but it never lasted very long. 

About three years ago, I started buying bags of grass seed – usually the cheap fescue but occasionally the more expensive centipede. Whenever conditions are good, meaning it has recently rained so the ground is soft and moist and more rain is coming that will press the seeds in, I’ll go out and throw seeds where needed. I never water anything because water is a precious resource but more importantly, I can’t move a sprinkler without getting soaked. 

Lo and behold, sowing seeds has worked. Our lawn is thick and green and actually lush in spots. 

One of my neighbors admired it recently so I explained my system. Two weeks later he informed me that he tried seeding but it just didn’t work for him.  I laughed when I told my husband the story because it’s taken several years to get to this point. Then it occurred to me that it is a perfect metaphor for career and leadership development and for growing a business. 

You can begin now to sow seeds for your career, leadership, and/or business success. Volunteer for that special project or committee assignment at work. send a follow-up e-mail to the guy you met at the networking event with a link to the book you mentioned, register for a MOOC (massive open online course). Hundreds of small and large opportunities exist for you to sow seeds for future success. 

You probably won’t see results in two weeks either but if you do this consistently, in a few years you’ll look around and think, wow, how green and lush my work has become.  

What are you doing to develop your career, leadership ability, and business? I would love to see your thoughts in the comments section below.