We all are taught many things in life. Even when we don't realize it until later.

My grandmother would go out to her garden and I would follow her. I would sit on the side and watch her pull some weeds, dig a hole, put in some seeds, cover them with dirt, give them a drink of water, and then move on to the next hole and do the same thing over and over. After a couple weeks, we would go back out and I would watch her pull more weeds and how she would protect what was growing by adding more water and making sure her plants had room so the sun could shine on them and help them grow. Seeing her plants grow was just as rewarding to me as it was her. I seen that she done something from the very beginning, provided it with care and its needs, and watched things grow and bloom to what she wanted them to be.

Little did I know that the process that she took in her love of her garden, is also the same process that we take in other areas of life as well. It can be a garden, a child, a marriage, or your work. Each of things need to be taken care of the same way. We need to know how to take care of what is important to us. We need to weed out what is not, we need to feed it in order for it to gain strength, we need to provide for it in order to grow, and we need to protect it and direct it, so that it will turn out and thrive with the full potential that it has.

It is important as leaders or mentors that we handle our "new growths" the same way. They can not succeed and grow with just a little help. They need all the knowledge, care, and tools that you have. The task of being a leader is to get your people from where they are, to where they have never been.