You wouldn’t laugh at an apple seed that you just planted in the ground, calling it a loser because it’s not delivering bushels of ripe apples each season.
You just planted it. It’s still a seed.
In time, with enough water and sunlight, fertilizer and proper attention, it will begin to grow into a skinny wisp of a tree trunk. So thin that it seems the wind will blow it over at any time.
You must protect it until it can gain strength from deeper roots and a stronger base.
Over time, that tree will become self-sufficient.
Its bark becomes tougher. Its limbs reach out further. Its roots tunnel deeper through the earth in search of the best nutrition.
Over time, that wispy tree trunk has become mighty, delivering bushels of fresh fruit.
It’s big enough for you to climb on it. Tough enough to be used as the foundation for a child’s playhouse or rope swing.
What was once just a tiny seed, is now an impressive sight to behold. No longer mocked because it is just a kernel buried over its head in the dirt.
That seed and that tree are the same things.
They are an apple tree. You just didn’t notice the tree until it was big enough to consume your full attention. It was there the entire time, digging its way inch-by-inch out of the dirt.
That tree is your story of success.
You’re going to start your journey covered in dirt and muck. Most people won’t see you. Some will step on you.
You have to protect your seed of success at all costs. Feed it the sunlight of possibility. Protect it from the ravaging floods of skepticism and negativity.
Take care of that seed every day.
You fight for it. You cheer for it. You do whatever it takes to make sure that seed turns into a stem. And then into a mighty tree.
Strong enough to take care of itself. Tough enough to protect the seeds other people are planting for themselves.
Success is a mindset long before it is something that other people can see.