The Apple Orchard

A Fable about Apple Trees.

The Apple Orchard

There once was a small apple sapling. 
He dreamed of being a big healthy tree. 
He loved how the other big healthy apple trees looked with their bright red apples sparkling when the sun slid in and out of the clouds. 

Eventually, this sapling grew into a fruit bearing tree.
He had great pride in how he looked. 
He had so much pride in how he looked, he kept all his apples to himself, wanting to look as full and fruitful as possible. 

As the days came and went that summer, he noticed some of the trees began giving their apples away to feed others.

He became confused because he noticed the trees giving their apples away were happy.  
They felt pride too. 
But their pride wasn’t in how they looked. 
They had pride in how they were feeding others. 

 As the season continued further into the fall, he started to notice that in keeping his apples to himself, they didn’t stay perfect and red. 
In fact, they started turning brown.  
They became mushy.  
No one wanted to look at them anymore; they became rotten and began to drop to the ground, leaving his branches empty. 

The trees that had given their apples away also had empty branches but looked better than ever.  
They looked proud.  
They looked accomplished.  
They spoke of all the people they fed and how well those people were doing. 
They spoke of how the people they fed wanted to plant their seeds and grow more trees just like them. 

 The tree that kept his apples, now laying on the ground and rotting, also spoke of planting seeds.
But in an odd way.  
He didn’t want his seeds to go too far or grow too much.  
He wanted them to stay in his shade.  
He wanted them to be where he could always see them.  
He wanted to always tower over them. 

The trees who had fed people were thrilled with how their seeds were doing. 
Their seeds were planted in a greenhouse.
Their seeds were beginning to sprout, having all the nutrients they needed to grow, and protected from the harsh winds and bitter cold of the outside world.  

The tree who kept its fruit was angered to hear of these younger trees receiving protection from outside forces. 

He began complaining,
“When I was a little sapling, I had to do things the hard way! I had to survive the harsh weather all on my own. I even had some of my branches broken by the strong wind, and half my roots froze!” 

One of the trees who gave his fruit away kindly said,
“That isn’t completely true. 
A long time ago someone planted you neatly in this orchard row. 
There were some harsh winters, but someone covered you in burlap to withstand those freezing temperatures.  
And there was the time when your broken branches were dabbed with tar to keep sickness from getting inside you.” 

The winter came and all the trees slumbered through the cold. 

Then one day, in the early spring when the ground began to soften, the tree who had kept his fruit to himself was surprised. 
He woke up as he felt some soil loosening not too far from him.  
And there he saw tree after tree being planted in a row. 

He asked where they were coming from. 

They answered,  
“We grew for a time in the greenhouse.  
We were protected. 
We were given what we needed to grow. 
We became stronger. 
We grew our roots long enough to be able to feed ourselves without someone having to water us every day. 
Our branches have become strong enough to begin to bear fruit, and we can’t wait to begin to feed others.” 
 
The tree who kept his fruit looked at all the new trees and saw that not all the seeds who left had returned. 
The tree who kept his fruit said in an arrogant tone,
“Well, it looks like only some of you have come back grown.” 

The young trees replied, 
“Yes, only some of us have come back here, but all of us have grown. 
Some of us are now in other orchards.  
We are happy for them.  
They will get the sunshine and sky they need to continue to grow, and we are thankful for the time we grew with them.” 
 
The tree who kept his fruit looked to the tree who had given his fruit away and saw, as best as apple trees can, a smile full of pride. 

The tree who kept his fruit asked why he was smiling. 

The tree who gave his fruit away said, 

“All this life you have been focused on yourself. 
You have wanted to keep your fruit to yourself, you have wanted to keep your seeds to yourself, you have wanted to even keep sunshine and rain to yourself, away from those even closest to you. 
You have been in the YOU-growing business. 
But you have missed, 
The only way to grow yourself is to go beyond yourself. 
I’m not in business of growing just one tree. 
I’m in the orchard business. 
I want to feed others, I want to plant seeds where they have room to grow, and I want them to grow tall above me to experience the sunshine themselves. 
The biggest part of living life is passing life on to others.” 

The tree who had kept his fruit to himself looked down to the ground right next to his trunk and saw many little saplings who could not grow because they were being kept in his shade. 

He was saddened.  

He had thought the more he kept for himself the bigger he would become.  
But he hadn’t.

He saw that the tree who had given fruit away had become the biggest.
His reach stretching through the lives of other trees in the orchard as far as the eye could see and even reaching beyond their orchard into other orchards. 
His fruit had fed countless people and the trees that grew because of him also fed countless people. 

And so, the very next time a young man walked through the orchard, the tree who kept all his fruit to himself, leaned out a branch and offered him an apple. 

-Nathan Caldwell

Nathan is a bestselling author and keynote speaker on the importance of leading with kindness.
He speaks for many different business sectors from theme parks and customer service to technology and cybersecurity.
He shares the secret to growing others is to build a culture of kindness.

To request a speaking engagement or to request a bulk order of the bestselling leadership book, Empowering Kindness, please email: 
nathan@empoweringkindness.com