Planting the Seeds of Intention and Watching Your Entrepreneurial Garden Grow

Guest Post by Eden Novak DeGenova :: I’m a believer in planting a seed and seeing what grows.  I use this analogy because I’ve been a horticulturist for over twenty years.  I’ve planted many seeds.  Some grow, some do not.  Some seeds surprise you and come up as totally different plants like gardening business; these are rogue or naturally mutated seeds.  Let me explain.

Before marriage and my two beautiful sons, I worked in the entertainment industry.  Then the video production industry, the apparel industry and the property management industry before going back to the apparel industry.  After my first son arrived, I was a stay-at-home mom who decided to try gardening in my new backyard.  My garden did not pan out as I had planned, so I took classes and eventually engaged in gardening business.  My garden flourished.  Every plant in my garden came from a seed that I planted indoors under grow lights.  I was in love with soil, with seeds, with fresh flowers and with veggies.

I was introduced to horticultural therapy.  I then volunteered for a garden therapy program.  I love helping people and I love plants.  I found my calling.  I thought it was children and plants. Those classes became a degree.  That degree led me to an internship at a botanic garden. But the training I received involved working with people with mental illness and not children as I had wanted.  That internship led to a horticultural therapy position at the state psychiatric hospital.  I didn’t even realize at the time that I had begun a new career that is gardening business.  I thought of it as a hobby.  The idea I had planted three years prior seeded itself as a horticultural therapist.

A conversation began the thought process of gardening business my next venture, a retail boutique.  I set an intention (the seed) and within two years, I opened the store.  After opening it, more intentions were seeded and those that brought me closest to my soul’s intention manifested into reality; those that did not dropped off and didn’t grow.  Did I mention that in this same time period I was also acting in community theatre?

Each career expands from the last.  Each career takes skills from the last career and builds on them to create a rounded complete skill set.  Yes, there is fear in beginning again.  There were great financial fears as I embarked on my last business, which weathered through the recession.  I found out that what you fear the most is where you must focus your attention.  In facing those fears and conquering them, I gained such valuable life and business skills.  I currently find myself facing two job prospects.  One has no fear attached to it.  The second scares the heck out of me.  It’s the second that I must focus on–an Executive Director position of a not-for-profit arts organization.

I don’t see the career changes that I’ve made as mistakes that must be corrected by looking for the job that is really right for me.  I look at it as my very own building blocks.  I am not any of my jobs.  I am not my career.  I am all of my experiences, failures and successes wrapped up in one person.  I’m that ever-evolving plant with strong roots that can stay upright through any storm.

The next time you’re on an interview and someone questions your career path or asks how your experiences fit into the position that you’re interviewing for, never question yourself or your skills.  Your desire to try something new or apply your abilities to a different position is to be commended.  Keep planting your seeds of intention and don’t forget to water them.

From 2006 – 2011, Eden Novak DeGenova owned and operated a retail boutique just west of Chicago, IL.  Prior to that, she spent 22 years as a horticulturist working for various botanical gardens and on private landscapes.  She’s been a horticultural therapist who’s worked with people with disabilities.  She’s also a professional actor and musician.  She can be found gardening again (!), horseback riding, working on newsletters, content for Got BMS (Body, Mind, Spirit), an offset of Baubo’s Garden, and writing.