In the far East they have something called The Chinese Bamboo Tree.
The Chinese Bamboo Tree takes five years to grow.
They have to water and fertilize the ground where it is every day,
and it doesn’t break through the ground until the fifth year.
But once it breaks through the ground,
within 5 weeks it grows 90 feet tall.
Now the question is does it grow 90 feet tall in 5 weeks or 5 years?
The answer is obvious.
It grows 90 feet tall in five years.
Because at any time if had that person stopped watering, and nurturing, and fertilizing that tree, that bamboo tree would have died in the ground.
And I can see people coming out talking to a guy out there watering and fertilizing the ground that’s not showing anything,
“Hey, whatcha doing? You’ve been out here a long time, man. And the conversation in the neighborhood is…You growin a Chinese Bamboo Tree, is that right??”
“Yea that’s right”
“Well even Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder can see ain’t nothing showin.”
You know that’s how people are gonna do you:
“So how long have you been working on this? How long have you been working on your dream? And you have nothing to show? This is all you got to show???”
People gonna do that to you.
And some people ladies and gentleman, they stop.
Because they don’t see instant results.
It doesn’t happen quickly.
They stop, oh no, no, no, no…
You’ve got to keep on watering your dreams
And when it begins to happen, they stop laughing.
They say “Look, whoa, look here, it’s, look up, hey man you know I knew you could do it, look, you got a job here?”
See during those hard times you didn’t know how you’re gonna make payroll, during those times when you failed and things didn’t work out, they were nowhere to be found.
You know what I discovered, when you’re working at your dream, somebody said “the harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.”
Oh it’s sweet to ya. It’s good to ya, why?
See when it’s hard and there’s a struggle, see what you become in the process is more important than the dream.
That’s far more important.
The kind of person you become, the character that you build, the courage that you develop, the faith that you’re manifesting.
Oh it’s something that you get up in the morning, you look yourself in the mirror, you’re a different kind of person, you walk with a different kind of spirit.
People know that you know what life is. That you have embraced life.
You knew it was hard, but you did it hard.
With Ken Thompson 