What I learned about business from Eggs

How are you using your wisdom as your competitive edge?

I witnessed a miracle yesterday.

In all the years of tending chickens, collecting their eggs, & enjoying them for breakfast, I had never seen the deed.

Yesterday, I watched one of our sweet hens lay an egg.

I noticed she was in labor as I entered the coop, so I stood silently in witness.

She pushed & squawked & pushed again.

Then quietly, an egg dropped into the nesting box.

For just a moment, she stayed frozen in her moment of bliss.

Chickens don’t have very expressive faces, but I tell you her face was blissful.

When I added it carefully to my egg basket, it was warm with a hint of moisture.

I’ve been keeping chickens for 15 years and I have a whole new respect for my girls now.

I’ve also been helping entrepreneurs birth their businesses for more than 30 years

I’ve learned some important business lessons from collecting eggs.

1. Not all ideas are created equally

• When a young hen starts laying, her eggs are tiny, sometimes only an inch long, but they still have a yolk, white, & shell.

• Within a week, she will lay one very large egg with a double yolk before she begins her daily egg laying routine.

• Somedays I am full of rich plump ideas that catapult my business forward.

• But most days, I have a multitude of small ideas that help me get to the next day.

2. Wisdom is a rich reservoir

• Throughout her life, a hen’s eggs will become larger and larger.

• Even though her egg count decreases after 2 or 3 years, one of her eggs can be as large as two of a young girl’s.

• The advantage a younger entrepreneur has is unlimited energy and speed.

• The advantage a mature entrepreneur has is the experience & wisdom to see solutions before problems become disasters.

3. Some ideas need to gestate

• At any given moment, a mature chicken has up to 5 eggs in various stages of formation inside her body.

• She instinctively knows when an egg is ready to be deposited in the nest box.

• Developing discernment about when to share your ideas is the difference between a food fight and breakfast.

• Throwing lots of ideas around can be fun but take it too far and all you have is a big runny mess.

Do you celebrate all your fabulous ideas or just the double-yolkers?

How are you using your wisdom as your competitive edge?

What’s your process for nurturing your ideas before bringing them into the world?