Redwoods measure in centuries
This past week I was not able to put The Wild Trees down learning about the longest living & largest trees to ever exist on planet earth, the Redwoods!
The redwoods are majestic. Many of these beautiful creatures have been growing before Christopher Columbus set foot on the Americas!
I spent a couple hours reading this book and I have summarized key takeaways about the redwoods for you and me to apply to our leadership journey in a 3 minute read:
SIZE of the Redwoods:
“Almost no trees of any species, anywhere, reach more than three hundred feet tall, except for redwoods. The main trunk of a redwood titan can be as much as thirty feet in diameter near its base.” (6)
TIME horizon of the Redwoods:
“The oldest living redwoods may be somewhere between two thousand and three thousand years old- they seem to be roughly the age of the Parthenon.” (7)
The redwoods are giant organisms that measure in centuries. They are patient creatures awaiting their moments for growth. Look at how they grow from year to year in the scope of their thousands of years in existence.
“A redwood may increase its diameter by only one millimeter a year, or it may add almost nothing to its diameter, only the thickness of a single layer of cells, if it is encountering conditions that discourage growth. Even so, redwoods are forever in motion, extending upward into the canopy and fighting to fill space.” (28)
The redwoods are always staying in the game. Some seasons of small growth. Other season of enormous growth. The redwoods are always looking forward: “The topmost portion of a tree is called its leader. The leader is a kind of finger that the tree uses to probe its way toward the sun.” (13)
The redwoods reach adulthood by the ripe age of 800. The redwoods are resilient and always poised to capitalize on the right seasons for growth:
“Around age eight hundred, which is the end of its youth, it may reach its maximum height – its thirty-something story height. Redwoods are extremely shade-tolerant. They can survive in dark places, at the bottom of a forest, in the deep shade of their elders, where few other trees would survive. A small redwood living in deep shade hardly grows at all, but it doesn’t die, it goes into a kind of suspended animation. If it is hit by light, it grows with relentless speed.” (20)
Time is on the redwoods side. The redwoods play the game so much longer than the other organisms in the forest.
To put it simply the redwoods are masters of compounding.
Formula for compounding:
The redwoods reach their incredible heights due to the time in the game. Redwoods leverage the formula of compounding with its enormous time horizon.
Most companies, organisms, and people have condensed time horizons.
Compounders think differently. Compounders use time as an asset.
Redwoods and a short list of business titans (think Warren Buffett), writers (think Seth Godin), & artists (think Bob Dylan) stay in the game for ridiculously long periods of time to witness the magic of compounding to unfold.
I think there’s a lot of opportunity in business to have the longest time horizon.
Onward,
Matt