The Marigold Effect
The Marigold Effect
Are you a walnut, or a marigold?
“I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.”
- Kobe Bryant
The Marigold Effect
Chasing Influence: Transformational Coaching to Build Champions for Life
As a friend, coworker, teammate, or family member, we can choose to show up as either a marigold or a walnut tree.
Marigolds are amazing. They are a gardener's best friend, providing a first line of defense around gardens. Their strong aroma confuses pests and keeps diseases and unwanted weeds at bay. Planting marigolds near your garden will help your vegetables grow bigger and healthier.
In contrast, walnut trees are attractive and produce bountiful nuts, but they come with a cost. These trees emit toxins into the soil that can poison plants and vegetables in the area up to 50 feet away, earning them the nickname of the "killer tree." Although walnut trees can be fruitful, they come at their surroundings' expense.
Finding and surrounding yourself with marigolds can be beneficial, not only in gardening but also in life and on teams. It's crucial to identify people who act as marigolds in your life and make an effort to spend time with them, as they can support and help you grow. Whether you're having a tough day or need encouragement, being around marigolds can make all the difference.
Equally as significant, ask yourself: Are you someone else's marigold? Are you someone who brings positivity, support, and encouragement to those around you? You can help others thrive and achieve success by being a positive influence. In doing so, we can create a community of support and encouragement that helps us all reach our full potential.
So, which one will you choose to be? Do you want to be like the marigold, which protects and nurtures its surroundings, or the walnut tree, which may produce but can also have negative consequences for its environment? It's up to you to decide!
"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime."
- Babe Ruth
Connecting this quote to the story. This quote shows the significance of working together as a team to achieve success, similar to the way different plants in a garden work together to thrive.
This week’s Chasing Influence tip: A team committed to each other will outperform a collection of individuals committed to themselves.
If you enjoyed this story, there is a series of 99 available with discussion questions and answers (including this one) in three Chasing Influence workbooks. Each workbook contains 33 lessons to use with any team.
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©Troy Urdahl, 2024