Starting a business is easy, keeping the spirit and not giving up is the difficult part. I’ve seen this repeating in many other entrepreneurial articles – “hard work, never give up and believe in yourself”. I actually heard of this analogy speaking to another entrepreneur last year. Starting a business is like planting a tree. At the beginning it is very hard to convince other people what you’re doing. It is risky. Who would believe a seed will become a tree?
It is alot of hard work and requires preparation as well. Market research is like looking for a the right environment for your type of tree. You need to understand your species and hopefully have experience planting one before. You can’t just plant a right next to a big tree, obviously it’ll be too competitive for you to survive. It needs to be on new ground that no one has tried before. The result is slow, but it is rewarding.
So next time when other people asks me, I can tell them I’m planting a tree.
Rex Chung 
Great analogy. I shared this with my team as we are about to launch our first RORs application (http://scoutforce.com). Our first tree is in its seedling state and we hope that it will grow into a huge oak that rapidly produces more seedlings. I think another key point is that you have the right arborists pruning, fertilizing and watering the seed/tree. Too much water drowns it, too much fertilize causes it to grow too fast and die and too much pruning may never allow it to be as fruitful.
Different vegetation is an indicator of the natural environment. You won’t sow tropical seeds in Tundra. Again “doing the right thing, in the right time, at the right place ” is paramount.