Our 9-year-old decided some months ago to start a business selling cacti, inspired by a recycling challenge and the opportunity to make some pocket money. Here are his reflections on the first few months of his succulent start up. (Read about the beginning.)
Patience
“You can’t rush them,” he counsels me as I peer at the growing array of pots on our windowsill. Luckily his research into propagating cacti prepared him for how long it would take to see results. Almost every reference noted it would take time. It’s taken 10 weeks to go from a single leaf to these tiny signs of new growth.
Diversify
From the start he was naturally interested in trying to cultivate a few different types of cacti, taking note that different types of plants would interest different future customer and a single customer might buy more than one.
It also turns out that not all cacti are equally easy to propagate. Some are as simple as harvesting a leaf and waiting, with more than 7 out of 10 surviving so far. Others have a far lower success rate, with only 3 out of 10 surviving past a few teasing days of health before starting to yellow and die. And then there are the kinds that are steadfastly refusing to propagate.
Which leads us to…
Persistence
“You know like Dory in the ‘Finding Nemo’ movie?” he explains. “She just keeps swimming and we have to just keep trying, you can’t give up.”
So far this experience has given him valuable chances to both fail fast (those cacti that he has yet to work out how to successfully cultivate) and failing slow (those cacti that break your heart, seeming to flourish for weeks before dying overnight.) and there are many more opportunities to fail ahead.
A mother’s insight
Here’s one reflection I have on all this: as an entrepreneur it’s invaluable to “know thyself”. Requiring a big push at the beginning and weekly watering and check ins, the cacti business turns out to be ideal for a fairly busy boy under 10. Things that aren’t a natural fit require more effort to sustain. In this case, both the boy and the cacti are growing well together.
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