Lessons from my Pecan Tree

The pecan tree pictured is in front of my house. Recently a nice lady stopped by and said she lived at our house in the summers as a child. Her Uncle had planted this pecan tree from a seed in the 1950’s. This Uncle of hers must have been a patient man. She told me that he lost all of his relatives when he was 11 years old during the Armenian Genocide.

He managed to make his way to America as a child and start a new life. It must have been hard to be optimistic about life after seeing all of your family members killed. After hearing his story I immediately started thinking about what I could learn from him:

1. He had an optimistic view of the future
2. He didn’t worry about what his neighbors thought as he planted the tree
3. Knowing he would not see the finished product, he planted the tree anyway

The tree he planted in the 1950’s is huge today.

It is very difficult to have a long term perspective when investing, but to the patient will the spoils go. Remember this pecan tree. I bet people laughed at this farsighted Armenian man when he planted it. I bet they also chuckled when he would water it each day. (Kinda like Noah)

The same thing happens in investing. People will scoff at your plan to invest $5,000, $10,000, $1,000 or whatever, but if you have a vision and a plan, it can grow into something as large and steady as this Pecan tree.

I help people take this long term view of investing. Think differently. It will pay off.