Are You A Flower or A Bee?

There was a fabulous little story shared at a Brendon Burchard event I attended and I believe you are going to love it.

It totally nails how we need to not "bee" in our business and marketing activities.

Flowers are amazing things

Flowers start from a tiny seed, get an idea they can be bigger than their current reality, and begin to do what it takes to grow.

They start out as a very tiny seed, but eventually one day, once their foundations are secure, the roots have been put down, the conditions are right, the flower plant pops through its first offering to the world.  

It pops the new green shoots up through the dirt that has so lovingly supported it during its first stage of growth.  The flower then lets the green shoots turn into leaves that establish the stability of the plant and provide shade while the flower bud starts to form.

Then when it is good and ready, the flower bursts forth and shines in all it's glory for the world to see.  It is so wonderful and beautiful, people often ignore everything else in the garden just to get close to, and admire the flower.  There is quite a lot of work and energy required to get the flower to its full stage, but once there, it simply stands tall and naturally attracts everything it needs, until it is time to go back to the earth and start the process again.

Then there is the bee.  

Everyone loves bees, in fact they have a sold reputation for being busy.  

They pop out with much abundance surrounding them, more honey than they could ever eat in a lifetime, but alas, all to soon they join the thousands of others just like them who need to work hard all day and keep up the reputation of the bee.

They fly around all day seeking out the flowers who are just standing around in the sunshine waiting for them to arrive.  

Bees don't see so well so they have to fly until they find a big bright patch of color and hope its a bunch of flowers, not a bright red kenworth truck!  It's tough for a bee just to get back to the hive in one piece.

Poor Mz Bee ..... doesn't even have time to admire the flower before she busily has to be gathering the pollen and then carrying almost her own weight in pollen or nectar, back to the hive and fight with the thousands of other bees just to get a spot to dump her load.  

Meanwhile the flower is still quietly in the garden basking in the sunshine waiting for Mz Bee to return.  

But there is now more busy work to be done by Mz Bee before she can return, now she has to do a complete clean down before she goes back out to bring back another load.

Sometimes each flower patch is so abundant the bee needs to make several trips, back and forth, back in carrying a heavy load, taking an empty load out and carrying a heavy load back.  The noise and road rage is overwhelming all day, so many bees on the path back and forth to the hive.  Sometimes she passes by some amazing places, but there is no time to stop and smell the roses, just got to keep working.  Oh and let's not forget to pollinate a few thousand other plants as we pass by keeping the whole Eco system in balance.  The work of a bee is never done.

The bee is so busy she doesn't even have time to consider if there is anything productive she could be doing with the empty load she always takes out of the hive.  She is just so focused on getting the pollen and nectar back to the hive, no time for thinking creatively.  

Then there is that demanding Queen to be served ... Oh dear, more work, it never ends.

Then what?  The farmer comes and takes a huge percentage of the production, safe in the knowledge the bees don't need it, they will just keep asking more because they don't know how to stop.

The flower and the bee play an equal part in the honey making process, honey can't be made without a flower AND a bee.

In fact our whole food chain is being threatened because the bees don't have enough flowers to seek out because humans keep building hosing estates where flowers beds used to grow.   Honey and bees don't exist without flowers.

It's the same in business - you can be the bee who literally works their guts out to get the honey OR you can be the flower who stands in the limelight drawing the bees in and getting the same result.

In your business you can choose to be the one track bee who will always be one of the masses working their guts out with little reward or recognition, or you can be the business who plans, puts down sold foundations and roots, is prepared to enlist the help of others during its growth and most importantly it is prepared to shine so everyone can find you easily AND you can contribute equally to the positive outcome.

The moral of this story is: 

Stop cutting down the tall poppies because bees and humanity need them!

Flowers and bees choose different ways to get the same outcome which is honey.  Bees and flowers have predestined roles, humans have choice.

What are you choosing to be? A flower or a bee?