Stay the Course, Keep Showing Up, Sow Seeds

You ever feel like you are terrible at something? Do you ever feel like you can't catch a break and you will never catch a break? I felt like that this morning, and I am still feeling some of that, but I recently heard a Jon Gordon podcast featuring Scott Harrison, the CEO of charity: water, and it gives me some hope.

About 15 years ago, Scott turned his full attention to the global water cross and the (then) 1.1 billion people living without access to clean water. Fourteen years later, his charity has raised over $557 million and funded over 78,000 water projects in 29 countries, and it has provided over 13 million people with clean, safe drinking water.

Scott told three stories in his podcast about grit and perseverance that are giving me hope to keep going, and I hope it gives you hope as well.

STAY THE COURSE
Scott said that he saw a Tweet of the stock chart of Amazon's price over 27 years. It looks like a flat line for 20 years, and then it turned into a hockey stick. The Tweet said, "Had Jeff Bezos quit in year 20, he would have left 93% of the value of Amazon unrealized." 7% of the value of Amazon was created in 2 decades; 93% of it was created in the last 7 years. 

You never know if your story will be like a hockey stick of growth, but it won't if you don't stay resilient, show grit, and continue to stay the course.

KEEP SHOWING UP
Scott said that there is a donor in the south that he has never met who recently made a $10 million donation to the charity. The donor was aware of the organization for years, and he had seen Scott speak at a conference, and was fortunate to sell his business in the pandemic. Scott knew exactly what they needed to do with the $10 million gifts because they were ready for it. Scott said that he would not have been able to take on the $10 million gift with confidence 5 years ago, in year 10 of the organization. He said that you have to keep showing up and keep sowing the right seeds. 

Jon Gordon said, "Consistency is underestimated. If you keep showing up and keep doing the work, over time - BOOM - it just takes off. You can't measure it, and you don't know when it is going to happen exactly. You can't dictate or decide when that moment is going to be, but it happens when you keep showing up."

SOW THE RIGHT SEEDS
Scott said that he once gave 4, back-to-back, 1-hour talks at a church in Florida in a community that was far from wealthy. At the end of a long, exhausting day, he didn't get any money or donations, and he had to go to work the next day. He remembered it being a bummer of a weekend and experience. 5 years later, a check for $100,000 showed up in his office. Someone in one of those four services rewrote their will, sadly passed away from cancer 5 years later, and $100,000 arrived for 10 water projects.

The kids of the deceased have since donated millions of dollars to the charity. That one seed that was planted, moved someone's heart, leading to a big donation, and it is paying itself forward. Scott planted those seeds, he thought it was a failure, and yet God had a harvest for him later on.

Stay the course, keep showing up, and keep sowing the right seeds.