blog post 5-12-14 the Team!

I wrote a blog about a Career Day panel that I was on recently.   Funny thing – being on a Career Panel.  The audience was comprised of landscape design students, each eager to gain insight into what it means to be a garden designer.  It is kind of like facing your Maker and answering penetrating questions, one of the most difficult being: “What are you proud of?”

First I mentally ticked through the many things I have done as a garden designer: the designs I’ve created, the clients I cherish, the plants I cultivate, the obvious successes, and the occasional mistakes.  But then I started to settle in on something bigger that I am proud of:  being an employer.  In a million years, I never thought I would be a business owner who employed 6 people.  Initially I just needed to get a lot of gardening done and hiring one person made an exponential difference.  I know, not rocket science, but two people can do a lot more than one person.  Then I needed two, three, etc.

As a business owner, I could easily focus on my own capitalist drive and exaltation (ok so the company is named after me -an early misstep) but instead I get to build an engine that generates jobs for 6 people who are trying to live meaningful lives, just like me. We create a team, one that is more about the way we work together than it is about simply planting a garden or pruning plants.   It is more than getting the work done – it is the deeply satisfying way in which I am not all about me.   I am responsible and am held accountable to others, I make a difference for others, I support those around me and make every effort to make a small number of people’s lives better.   And so when I’m asked that hard question, I say that this is something I am immensely proud of.  What are you proud of?

 

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