The biggest things start small

The summer in between my senior year of college and my first year of “grown-up” life I read Atlas Shrugged. It inspired me to not settle – to go after the big dreams – to hear the words “that can not be done” and have the only thing that I think be “Oh hell yes, watch me”.

**

Months ago Adam and I were taking a meeting while going for a run on the river in Rochester – working for yourself means you’re always working and you get to pick from where (which is why my toes are buried in sand right now) – any way,  we see these huge buildings abandoned and I stare at them and I think “I want to build something like that” or “I want to transform those spaces into something amazing”.  It just seems so huge – so big – so improbable.

**

I look at the work that George Eastman did – the empire he created and how the politics of big business eroded his vision and I think there must be a better way.

**

This weekend I stood among the redwoods in Muir Woods – I was in awe. Trees always bring me great perspective.  Hundreds of feet tall, some over a thousand years old and they all have one thing in common – they started small.  The size of a tomato seed to be exact.  Is that not just an amazing wonderful thought to hold on to?

**

I struck up a conversation with the person next to me at a coffee shop yesterday and they asked me a little bit about what I do and I was telling them about how I loved the big businesses that I get to work with but my passion was really working with the one man shops and the not-for-profits pushing forward their dream because they have the most potential, the most drive and the biggest things start small….because everything does.

**

Sometimes I feel small – that my impact is minor – but this weekend, with the rush of the breeze from these wise trees around me, I was reminded that it isn’t about how small we are when we start – it’s about how we grow.