Lessons from a Farmer - Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving traditions are different around the world, but here in Canada, we give thanks the second Monday in October. Sometimes, crops are in the bins and harvest is over and other times, farmers are still working long hours to put this year's harvest up before winter sets in. 2020 has brought a lot of changes to Canadian businesses, but I for one, is thankful for the beautiful fall weather that has allowed us and other Western Canadian farmers to harvest before the snow flies!

Optimism has fuelled farmers for centuries. Each year, a farmer optimistically plants a seed. The seed chosen is based on the soil's nutrient base, climate, crop rotation, forecasts for rain, moisture content, what others are seeding around the globe, spot and future commodity prices and gut. There is no certainty in farming. There is always the Goldilocks risk: too little or too much rain, sun, pests, wind, hail or snow. Mother Nature has always been able to one-up human kind. Other risks come with resources - equipment, labour or financial capital available when you need it.

What if in the spring, the farmer had let uncertainty paralyze him/her? What if, faced with all the uncertainty before them, they chose not to plant that seed? The outcome would obviously be food shortage, hunger and financial devastation. Photo by Branimir Balogovi? from Pexels

Our lives are much like that of the farmer. We can learn the lesson to assess and move through risks, taking measures along the way to insure or mitigate risks with a few pivot strategies in our hip pockets. Conversely, we can let ourselves be gripped with fear and uncertainty refusing to move forward. We must still plant the seeds, whether those be investments in your business, investments in new business opportunities, investments in your community or relationships within your family and community.

Believe that regardless of the uncertainty and storms that await us, you will see the possibility of what can be. You won't lose sight of your vision. One of these days, you will have that bumper crop!

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Laura Bechard is a partner in a 115 year family farm in Western Canada. Passionate about supporting family entreprises respond to changing economic realities is the expertise found at ProVision Business Advisors.  

ProVision Business Advisors is a boutique business advisory firm headquartered in Calgary, AB.  Advisors work through financial services firms to facilitate programming for growing businesses as well as individuals looking to grow through acqusition or strategically exit their businesses through succession or sale.

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