The Beauty of Starting Little
In the world that we find ourselves in, quite a number of people are only celebrating big achievements, big success story, large platforms, so much that it tends to discourage others from starting little. They would only dream big and also want to achieve something big, yet they will not want to go through the process of starting small. What they fail to understand is that there is an unimaginable power of growth that is resident in starting little than not starting at all. Someone that started small and keeps making advancements is far better than some who keeps waiting to start big and never starts. More often than not, it may not be how you started that determines greatness but how you have continued, your zeal and enthusiasm, and the progress you have made over time.
There was a relative of mine who always dreamt of going into agriculture, especially animal husbandry - piggery. Over a couple of years, he was constantly talking about it and discussing about his plans. It was obvious that he had big plans, but his only challenge was the huge financial requirement. Even when a couple of family members and friends tried to raise some contributions for him, he still did not start because he felt the money was not up to what he needed. He wanted to do something big. Then I had to advise him that he should start with whatever resources that he has and from where he is. I even explained to him that if he had started since he planned to, he would have made some reasonable progress over the years.
After a while of convincing him and encouraging him to start small, he obliged. He built a small pen around his house and bought a couple of mature pigs to start with. He started with about 4 pregnant pigs. After a couple of month, the pigs delivered and he sold the piglets. With the money, he add a few other pens. Something that he started with 4 pigs some years back, now, he has grown to having close to a 100 mature pigs. If he had continued to wait until he can start big, or when he had all the support that he wanted, he may not have started and he may not have achieved what he has achieved within just a couple of years. It does not matter how small you started, what matters is that you have started and you are growing. In a short time, you would have surpassed the point you had wished that you started from.
A lot of the people that you admire their successes today started small, but they did not allow their starting point to stop them from moving. Starting small has a way of teaching many values; like patience, growth mentality, hardwork, and perseverance. More so, it helps you to learn from your mistakes and do it on time, so as to use time in your favour. If you start small and quickly, even if you make a couple of mistakes, you can learn from them while you still have time to make subsequent attempts. But if you keep waiting to start big, you may even run out of time and you will not have the opportunity to make a second attempt if something goes wrong.
One of my friends explained to me how he started his company. He is into the collection and recycling of waste products - like used plastic bottles, cans, etc. When he started, it was like a dirty business that a lot of people were not interested in, because of the process of gathering the waste products, which sometimes may even require him going to refuse dumps to collect them. He started with gathering and selling the wastes to raise money, then with that, he was able to secure partnership with a recycler to have his own waste materials recycled for him before selling for higher price. That was how he started to grow. Over a couple of years, he now owns his own recycling facility and doing well, that people now pay him to recycle for them. If he had not started small, he may not have grown into where he is at this point.
As soon as you have a dream of what to do and you have a plan towards it, then take a step and put actions towards it. You do not have to see the entire staircase all the way up before you take the step. As long as you have the knowledge of your destination and where you are going to, then take the step. It may be small today, but that same step might give birth to something very massive in the future. Always have in mind that it is the small step of today that produces that giant leap of tomorrow.
Thanks for reading
