As The Year Comes to A Close – Quotes to Live by from 2025

The Gap and the Gain

We spend so much time trying to achieve goals that keep extending, that we never look back to see how far we have come.

As the 2025 year comes to a close, I feel like reflecting on the year that was (or wasn’t). I could concentrate on lessons learned or profits missed, but I feel like everybody else will reflect on these low-hanging fruit. So, to end the year, I choose to reflect on the quotes that have driven both motivation and discipline. To hopefully bring positivity to a world that currently chooses optimism.

“You do not rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems”
Too often, as producers, we blame the individual, not the process. I’ve learned, mostly by mistakes, to understand that the majority of humans do not want to fail. When something occurs that is clearly because of human error, it is almost guaranteed to be a mistake in the process. I used to believe “you can’t fix stupid”, but I just didn’t realize it was most likely directed back at me for not creating the roadmap.

“The bad days create the story I will one day tell myself I overcame”
Life isn’t supposed to be easy; if it were, everybody would be successful. The strongest entrepreneurs I know are those who can “return to baseline”. The markets dropped, the grain got hail, and an employee quit. How quickly can your emotions return to baseline? Only those who can manage emotional reactions will make the proper decisions when urgency is involved. I didn’t say I could do that, just that those around me who are thriving can.

“Everyone is jealous of what you’ve got; nobody is jealous of how you got it”
If I never had to hear “must be nice” in a boardroom again, I would die a happy man. I have been around long enough to know that everybody has a story. Those businesses that are successful most likely had failures from the start. The largest and strongest farm operations most likely took more risks in times when others remained complacent. They had more stress, missed family events, probably were close to bankruptcy, and still came out the other side. Build your circle around those people; it is more motivating to chase than to be in the lead.

“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together”
I used to use the expression “a Lamborghini has two seats”. Those entrepreneurs who are the most successful surround themselves with quality, not quantity, of people. Buffett and Munger, Jobs and Wozniak, Gretzky and Kurri. It is my fundamental issue when it comes to most peer groups; too often, we surround ourselves with those who make us feel good about our success. I want to be surrounded by those who challenge me to push further and critique my faults. If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room.

“Don’t take criticism from those you would not take advice”
If you continually care about how others perceive you or what they think, it makes you a prisoner. After fighting with this for most of my life, call it an epiphany or a lesson from a good friend, but I am moving forward without a focus on those who criticize and those who praise. In this instance, playing in the middle of the road is safer than the ditches.

“The more money you make other people, the more money you make for yourself”
I saw this quote and was instantly intrigued. Elon Musk owns 20% of Tesla, and Jeff Bezos owns 9% of Amazon. In every other industry, they understand that even if the pie is not 100% yours, you still get to eat. Only in agriculture do we want to be the leaders of our own domain. The longer we continue to believe we don’t need outside capital to grow, the quicker those around us will scale. Farming is a business, and complacency kills businesses.

“We suffer more in our own imagination than in reality”
Have you ever heard the expression “we are our worst critic”? As an entrepreneur, you will always believe that you are being judged. As a farmer, it becomes worse because those around you to judge are most likely family. Once you can overcome the fear of failure, the fear of guilt, and the fear of success (yes, this is a real thing), you truly will understand that those true souls in your corner are rooting for you. Or, you will find out that those in your corner are not what you assumed.

“The grass may be greener because it is fertilized with shit”
We live in a reality of entitlement. Too often, I meet people who are so busy looking over the fence at the neighbours that they have forgotten how to walk themselves. In a world of social media, we have become accustomed to the “Facebook family”. Or in agriculture, the farm that has a new combine, or a new half-ton, or a million-dollar house in the middle of nowhere. Either figure out how they did it, or figure out how they didn’t. Often, we praise the wrong people in this world. Let’s forget the influencers and spend time with the “real ones”.

My best advice is “be you”. The only thing in common with all these quotes is that they are based on mindset. How you run your business, how you treat your family, how you manage your stress, and, first and foremost, how you live your life. We talk about the five freedoms of money, time, health, relationships and purpose. If one of these fails, the house of cards falls.

From our family to yours, we hope you find money to save, time to spend, health to cherish, relationships to foster and lastly, purpose to move forward.