​You are the only person who can tell your story exactly the way it should be told.  After all, you’re the one living it!  If you keep your thoughts, ideas and experiences to yourself, they are secrets, not stories.

This article marks my 200th attempt to share my story with you.  I began writing “Cultivation(s)” four years ago to share my active thoughts and perspective on what’s required to grow a bountiful culture and build a successful business.  The commitment to sharing my ideas weekly in such a public forum has inspired me to examine life events and routine business situations to seek out the lessons they may hold.  It’s been an enlightening and liberating endeavor.

We have so much to learn from each other.  Our world today is literally awash in information, so much so that it can become overwhelming “white noise” if we allow it to bombard us.  Google and the World Wide Web have transformed our access to seemingly unlimited information in just a generation.

Stories have the power to bring information to life through context and relevance to specific situations.  Stories can transform otherwise dry content and make it interesting, at least if they’re good ones!  That’s why people make the best teachers, not books, manuals, or slide decks.  A great teacher brings a textbook to life and provokes deeper thought.

I’ve enjoyed hearing your stories through the process of sharing mine; thank you for joining the conversation.  You add value each and every time you reach out and connect your ideas with those of others.  Looked at one by one, they may be simple observations or anecdotes; but when woven together, these stories write the “Book of Business” and add important chapters to the “Great Novel of Life”.  The latter is always a work in progress.

So, please tell your story and – Enjoy the Journey!