Three important lessons from 3 years of growing “trees”

Growing a company is quite similar to growing trees in an orchard. As a gardener, you have to work hard to give the right nutrients, the right amount of water, the right amount of care, etc. At the same time, there are also a lot of factors beyond your control, such as the amount of rain or sunshine. Just as a gardener would be proud of the trees he has grown, our team is proud that Glee Trees has been growing for the past 3 years. I’ve learnt much from the experience of growing with the company since the day of its inception. Lessons are aplenty, but I’d like to summarise them in three main aspects.

1)     It’s about people, people, and people

It is important to treasure the people around us. The first group of “people” I treasure is our team. I’m thankful to my co-founder for his patience with me and working things out together for the past three years. He has been the “cheerleader” of the team, always encouraging us to aim high and keep doing better than the day before. I’m thankful to my colleagues, for their courage and belief that there are no dreams too bold that we can’t strive for. We fail at some things and we succeed in some. We have our good days and bad. That is alright. The most important thing is we keep trying.

Another group of “people” are our partners and mentors. We are lucky to have met some amazing people who have offered to work with us. We try to look for synergy and to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes to grow together.

The other wonderful group of “people” is our customers. I am most thankful for their faith and trust in us to help them make office-life a tad better with automation. Their stories that our product(s) has helped them save time, improve service, or enhance accuracy, always inspire us to keep going!

2)     Juggling is not just for clowns

There are so many tasks that sometimes prioritising gets tricky. What comes first? What comes later? What do you attend to first when everything and everyone is shouting for your attention? I tell myself that importance of a task should be based on the impact or the repercussions that its completion has. Sometimes I get lost in the “doing” just because of the sheer volume. To stay sane, I had to learn the difficult skill of saying “no” to some things. (I am still learning.) Tasks are important, and people are too. There is also the need to break away from work and spend time with family as well.

3)     Learning is a serious game

In our early days, when I told friends that we were trying to make a product, create awareness, and trying to get customers who were willing to pay for it, many gave me the incredulous “are you sure you can do it?” kind of looks. We have proven that we could do all these and more! It hasn’t been easy and the journey doesn’t end here. The product always needs enhancements. The services and processes can be improved. There are many things we can do “better”. There are so many things to learn. If only humans could “download” knowledge, skills, and experience to fast-track the learning. But I believe mere mortals can make do with hard work. We read, listen, and watch how others do. We try and learn from experience. Learning and applying what we’ve learned is a critical survival skill in business.  

As we move on, I hope that our team continues to grow in wisdom, and that we continue to create value for all our various stakeholders. Happy birthday, Glee Trees! (1 July 2019)