When I was seven, my grandfather planted a mango tree in our back garden.
"When will it give fruit?" I asked.
"Five years," he said.
I was devastated. Five years felt like forever.
But my grandfather tended that tree every morning. He watered it, pruned it, talked to it in the way old men talk to growing things. And five years later, there were mangoes.
I thought of that tree many times during my career. When I started my first business and there were no customers for eight months, I thought of the mango tree. When I was offered quick money to compromise on quality, I thought of the mango tree.
The lesson my grandfather never explicitly taught but always demonstrated: the best things require time and consistent tending. There is no shortcut to a mango tree.
In business, in relationships, in any endeavour worth pursuing — plant your tree, tend it faithfully, and trust the timeline.