https://www.330ramp.com/blog/2019/5/1/the-parallels-between-gardening-and-investing
"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow"
-Audrey Hepburn
Days are getting longer, warmer and more sunny. As the saying goes, you know it is spring when the Leafs are out again. Our team huddles have had more than a few diversions onto the topics of gardening. A common occurrence seems to be weekends spent shoveling, shopping (can you ever really have too many plants?), weeding and seeding. Every time I get my hands in the dirt, I think back to the generations of farmers in my family who tilled the prairie soils. Farming has strong roots in Canada, as the Richardson part of our firm's name can well attest. There is something meditative about growing a little bit of nature in our digital, urban world.
I've been fondly tending to my tiny tomato and pepper plants that were started indoors a few weeks ago. My garden box this year will host truly diverse constituents: kale, cucumbers, melons, peas, rhubarb, to name a few. Hopefully most will survive and some may even thrive. As the sprouts start bursting out of the dirt, it is interesting to think about how gardening and investing both involve some common themes. If we think of a portfolio as a garden box, how can we sow the seeds of success?
Have a Plan
"Some people look for a beautiful place; others make a beautiful place."
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
Both gardening and investing require careful thought. You should calculate your resources deciding how much of what to plant. You should map out your space and plan for what will happen as things grow. Without a plan, you may get lucky and find some success as 'life will find a way'. But that success will likely not be be living up to it's full potential. If you can think ahead and have a well thought-out process, you will have a far more predictable, and likely superior, yield.
Sow the Seed
"It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn."
-Bertie Charles Forbes
Care & Nurture
"To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul."
-Alfred Austin
Manage Risks
"To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul."
-Alfred Austin
Harvest the Yield
"To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul."
-Alfred Austin
Rotate & Repeat
"To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul."
-Alfred Austin
Pass it on
前人栽树后人乘凉
Trees planted by ancestors provide shade for their dependents.
-Chinese Proverb