Treebeard’s Guide to Online Success

By Colin VanderMeulen

Who could be better than Treebeard and the Ents to teach us about online success?

You probably think I’m joking right? After all, what would a bunch of fictional, giant, tree like creatures know about succeeding online? Well, they might not know much about the technical side of things, but the Ents do have a lot to teach us about how we should think and act if we want to be successful.

If you’re not familiar with Treebeard and the Ents, they are fictional characters in JRR Tolkien’s classic story “The Lord of the Rings. Treebeard is the leader of the Ents; a group of large, tree-like creatures that take care of the trees of the forest.

Success Lessons From The Ents

Think Before You Act
In order to decide if they were going to get involved in an upcoming epic battle between good and evil, Treebeard and his Ents had a meeting. While we weren’t privy to everything they discussed during this meeting, I like to imagine that they had a typical business style meeting where facts were presented, advantages and disadvantages discussed, and finally, they voted on what course of action to take.
The ultimate result of that meeting is that they decided not to get involved in the war.

You should do the same thing when you need to make a decision. It doesn’t matter if you have a larger business with employees, or if you work from home in your pyjamas. Either way, you should make sure that you take the time to evaluate things before you act.

A little more time spent thinking and planning can prevent you from having to spend a lot more time fixing your mistakes later.

Re-evaluate Things When You Get New Information
After the meeting of the Ents, Treebeard was travelling through the forest when he came across a vast stretch of the woods that have been torn up and burned by an evil wizard named Saruman and his army of Orcs. Many of those trees were his friends.

This was new information to Treebeard. Neither he, nor the Ents were aware that this was happening.
With this new information in hand, Treebeard decides to take a new course of action. He decides that he and the Ents will get involved. They gather, and they attack Saruman. If they didn’t do this, they would have eventually become extinct themselves.

Do you remain flexible and open like Treebeard? Or are you rigid and inflexible?
Change with the times. Be hungry for new information and be flexible enough to change what you’re doing based on what you learn. If you don’t, your methods and approaches will become outdated and ineffective. You’ll eventually become extinct.

Focus On Your Strengths
The Ents were large creatures that were naturally good at throwing large boulders and stepping on evil little Orcs, and that’s exactly what they did when they attacked Saruman and his army. And when it came time to deal with the wizard Saruman, Treebeard knew that he wasn’t well suited to handling this task himself, so he asked for help from his wizard friend Gandalf.

His strategy of attack played on the strengths of the Ents, and when it came to doing something he wasn’t adept at doing, he asked for help. Your online business strategy should be the same.
What are you good at that you know is effective for helping your business grow? Make those activities your core ones.

If you need other things done, but you’re not good at doing them yourself, consider hiring someone else to do them for you. Your whole business will be more efficient and more successful when you do.
Be Persistent

The battle with Saruman saw some heavy losses for the Ents, but they never gave up. They followed through right to the end, and they succeeded in what they set out to do.
Your online business is going to be the same. There will be hard times. And there will be especially hard times just before you find your success.

Remember, if you’re ever seriously thinking about throwing in the towel, things always seem darkest before the dawn. Be persistent and give your success a chance to start showing itself before you give up.

About The Author – Colin VanderMeulen is the founder and author of the blog Practical Self Help where you can learn how to empower yourself to live the life you’ve been dreaming about.