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Key Takeaways Just like grape farming requires year-round preparation, building a successful company requires consistent effort, patience and focusing on sustainable growth rather than quick wins.
Just as crops need protection from disease, businesses must proactively guard against threats to keep operations running effectively.
The most enduring companies focus on long-term value and steady development instead of chasing fast profits or short-lived success.
What comes to mind when you try to picture a future tech CEO? Do you picture a lone programmer working out of his humble garage in Palo Alto, bent over a motherboard with a screwdriver in a pair of Levi’s 501s? Or do you imagine some Ivy Leaguer building the next major social media platform in his dorm while his roommates are busy going to parties and trying out for the rowing team?
No matter what you’re thinking of, I’ll bet it’s not a teenage kid harvesting grapes in rural Washington State. But that’s exactly how my career started, and I’m glad it did.
Before I was the CEO of an industry-leading power dialer for outbound sales teams, I spent my days helping out on my parents’ concord grape farm: a 700-acre property located a few hours southeast of Seattle.
Pruning vines, managing canopy growth and shearing clusters might not seem analogous to living in Silicon Valley or going to Harvard. But these experiences taught me some of the most memorable and valuable lessons of my life.
Now it’s time to harvest those lessons and bring them to you. Here’s what growing grapes in my youth taught me about how to grow a company.
A time to plant and a time to harvest
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