Winemakers and Farmers

Farmers and winemakers have more in common than just planting things. They share a dependency on climate and as a businessperson I’m not sure I’d like to be so dependent on something so out of my control. But they also share another quality which I think we all should emulate in our daily lives, both business and personal.
That’s patience. You can’t rush the wine – the grapes are ready when they’re ready. And while I’m told it’s possible to accelerate crop development for some plants, most farmers just weed and wait.
I’m more proactive than that, as those of you who visit here know. But there is a tendency in the digital space to do something and expect immediate gratification. As an example, I have a client with whom I’m working on SEO. One big issue we had to discuss early on was how long improved organic search results would take. When the answer was expressed in days or weeks rather than hours, the response wasn’t great. At my last job we had a running joke we deployed every time we embarked on some massive development project. “It’s the Internet – how long could it take? Just flip the switch!” knowing full well that no one outside of the immediate tech team had any patience with the development cycle.

We see it in the news as big problems – the economy, health care, the auto business – are expected to be fixed in a fraction of the time it will realistically take.  We demand our staffs, our politicians, our kids – everyone –  do things YESTERDAY but complain when they make errors in that haste.  Maybe the speed of everything today has just whittled away everyone’s ability to, as my grandfather used to say, wait a while.

Everyone but farmers and winemakers…