What can we learn from the Chinese Bamboo Tree?

If you Google the ‘Chinese bamboo tree growth cycle’, you will find many articles using this as an analogy for personal development etc. I was prompted to look it up after a webinar I listened to last week.

When a seed is planted it doesn’t look like much is happening. In fact, it can look like nothing is happening for four years! If we had the patience, we would plant a seed and water it faithfully and nurture it and give it the time it needs to grow. If we didn’t appreciate what was happening underneath the surface we may well give up at any point in this four year period, throw it out and chalk it up to experience - we may also tell ourselves that we just weren’t meant to grow anything.

Well, for those people who have staying power, understanding and belief, the fifth year would reward them - BIG time! During the first four years the plant has been developing an extensive network of roots to support its explosive growth in year five. In that fifth year it will grow 80 - 90 feet, growing about 3 feet a day!!! Wow! Now that is a major reward for four years of hard work and patience.

And here’s the remarkable lesson authors can learn from it:

When we publish a book, we need to spend time promoting it, working out the channels that work and feeding them on a regular basis. How many of us give up after 6 months, or a year, 2, 3 or 4 years and decide that nothing will work, our book won’t sell?

Well, if we believe in the analogy, all the persistent groundwork will pay off but it will take a long time for that to happen. We must plan our promotion, do all the things we said we’d do and monitor the success of each one. We can’t say ‘Facebook’ doesn’t work for me, or ‘what’s the point in keeping the website up to date, no-one is on it’.

Persistence is the key. If something isn’t working, change it. But KEEP GOING!

It’s like most things in life - you get out of it what you put into it! So nurture your book and allow it time to grow!

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So here’s to successful books a few years from now!