My Father’s Day wish

As an entrepreneur and a lover of the outdoors, I’m often struck by the way life in business mirrors the life of all things wild and free, where the starter must fail and where nature itself seems to know better than we do what lessons we need to learn for the challenges before us. Nature teaches…

fathers_day_wish

As an entrepreneur and a lover of the outdoors, I’m often struck by the way life in business mirrors the life of all things wild and free, where the starter must fail and where nature itself seems to know better than we do what lessons we need to learn for the challenges before us. Nature teaches the builder.

One of my favorite images comes from Aldo Leopold, a titanic figure in ecological history, who describes in A Sand County Almanac the life of the oak now burning in his stove, warming his feet.

Leopold estimates one in a thousand acorns will ever sprout even a single leaf. Those that make it through germination will spend the first years, perhaps as many as ten, being clipped off at the ground by foraging animals.

While the progress above ground may be stunted year after year by no less than a rabbit, the oak, undeterred, continues to build root mass, the foundation that may one day break the cycle. Time after time the oak rises from the ground to be mowed by disappointment. Yet the oak abides, preparing itself for its next opportunity to shoot skyward.

One day, perhaps, the vigor stored beneath the ground rises in a way the rabbits can chew but can’t cut down completely. After years of failure, the oak builds sufficient strength to sustain rabbits, deer, droughts and floods.

As Father’s Day nears, my wish for my children and yours is the industriousness of the oak, the steadfast commitment to worthwhile work that may one day warm the world’s feet. As parents we model this strength of character while our children watch us rise and fall and rise again in pursuit of solutions to problems that matter. With every cutting, our hidden roots grow more resilient until we stand up tall with the strength of years.

For the oak, for us, and for our children, it is that lifelong rhythm of failure, struggle, and hard-earned success that defines the good we give to the world. The roots we gain are the very thing that keep us upright when the winds blow.


Eric Dinger is the co-founder and CEO of Powderhook, an app built to incentivize sportsmen and women to help each other get outdoors more often. Together with forward thinking outdoor industry brands, state agencies and leading NGO’s, Powderhook’s team is tackling some of the toughest challenges facing the future of hunting, fishing and recreational shooting.

Powderhook is launching their app in Nebraska this week. Get it at www.powderhook.com.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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