A company is a small nation. Nations need cohesion, something to rally around, a reason for being. As we approach the birth of our Nation, I thought it would be inspiring and instructive to revisit some of the words that built and continue to fortify America. May we all channel Jefferson as we craft the words, statements, values, and beliefs that shape our day-to-day. Here’s to missions that mean something and the commitment to see them through.

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”

Over the weekend I was sitting on the back porch with my grandfather. He is a farmer and teacher, a wonderful combination. He was looking at the trees around us and pointed to a group of pear trees behind the neighbor’s fence. The trees were inferior, he explained because the branches don’t grow from the trunk of the tree…they grow out of any notch. As a result, they break off easily. The tree has no integrity.

He also told me a story once about a man who came to him for advice about his apple trees. The man was no farmer and he’d inherited a small orchard. He took my grandfather out to the orchard to look at one particular tree that was not fruiting. It was healthy and big, bigger than some of the others. But, no fruit. Grandfather took a look at the tree and asked the man if he had a chainsaw. He did. Seeing an opportunity for humor, he brandished the chainsaw threateningly at the tree. “Now, you’re going to fruit or we’re going to take you down!” he called out as he whacked off several branches. The man stood there astonished. Several weeks later, fruit. The tree had needed pruning.

Lessons from trees: Make sure new growth happens from your trunk, not increasingly distant branches. And recognize the importance of pruning to keeping the whole organism healthy and bearing fruit.