We reap what we plant: Be careful what you plant

A successful businessman was growing old and wanted to choose a successor to take over his business. Instead of choosing one of his executives or his children, he decided to do something different.

He called all his employees together and said, “It is time for me to retire and choose the next CEO. One of you will take my place.”

Everyone was shocked.

The boss continued. “I am going to give each of you a seed – a very special seed. I want you to plant it, water it, and come back in one year from today with your plant. I will judge the plants and choose be the next CEO.”

A man named Jim received a seed, went home all excited and told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost to plant the seed.

Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some employees began to talk about their the plants that were beginning to grow.

Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. Others started talking about their plants. Jim felt like a failure.

Six months went by – still nothing in Jim’s pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing.

Jim didn’t say anything to his colleagues. He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil so the seed would grow.

A year finally went by and all the workers brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that he wasn’t going to bring an empty pot. However, she asked him to be honest about what happened.

Jim felt sick to his stomach. It was going to be so embarrassing. Yet he knew his wife was right. So, he took his empty pot to the board room.

When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by his colleagues. They were beautiful – in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him.

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted everyone. Jim just tried to hide in the back. “Wow! What great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown,” said the CEO. Suddenly, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered him to come to the front. Jim was terrified. He thought, “The CEO knows I’m a failure. I want to hide.”

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed. Jim told him the story. The CEO then asked everyone to sit except Jim. He looked at Jim and announced, “Behold your next Chief Executive Officer. His name is Jim.”

Jim couldn’t believe it. “Jim couldn’t even grow his seed. How could he be the new CEO?” the others said.

Then the CEO said, “One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. However, I gave you all boiled seeds that were dead. Growth was impossible. All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees, plants, and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive Officer!”

The moral: we reap what we plant. So be careful what you plant. Make sure it lasts for all eternity.