Many years ago, I was living in Toronto. I shared an apartment in a Victorian walk-up with 3 others after answering a Craigslist ad. We were strangers. Some of us became friends. And for a while, it was perfect.

On the corner of our street was a multiplex. Like many landlords in the area, this one didn’t spend a lot of time on landscaping and the tenants, like most of us, didn’t have enough time to put in and maintain a garden so it grew up with weeds.

One day, I was headed to the streetcar and walked past the multiplex. The whole front yard was filled with flowering dandelions. 

It was stunning. So yellow and happy and bold…and then, I saw…right in the middle of this glorious field…

A single tulip. 

This tulip was proud and tall…and definitely not a dandelion. 
It’s strange when tiny moments last for decades. I’ve been thinking of this tulip quite often lately. 

No doubt it was a stray bulb replanted by a forgetful squirrel but the metaphor doesn’t include rodents. 

How would your business look if you owned your differences?
What would happen if you decided to allow all your tulipness to shine forth?
What could you do today to be distinctive in a field of dandelions? 

You’re a tulip. 
Be that. 

ps – no digs on dandelions. They’re often the first food for pollinators, they make great pesto, and over at the farm, we love them. But there’s a time to blend into the field and there’s a time to be you. You were made to stand the f*ck out.