The Sudden Urge to Bolt

Why we can ignore a decision for years and suddenly it becomes clear.

Every plant has a different life cycle, just like businesses.

A short-lived annual like lettuce has one goal: to establish itself, grow, and set seed for the next generation of lettuce to spread far and wide.

As gardeners, we often want to prevent this seed-setting stage because it means there isn't as much to harvest.

Red leaf lettuce that is about to flower.

We call this “bolting”

As gardeners, we do what we can to prevent the bolting of our plants.

We harvest the outer leaves regularly. Or cut back the whole plant to keep it in a new growth stage.

We might use a shade cloth to tell the plant that the days are short and it’s not time to make seed yet.

The imperative to bolt

But eventually, our efforts will be thwarted by the natural imperative of plants to pass on their genes.

When the environment changes, it signals that it's time to flower.

The change might be hot sunny weather or a cold snap.

Either way, the plant realizes it's now or never. Time to bolt, set flowers, and send seeds out into the world.

I've been resisting bolting

As an entrepreneur and small business owner for the past 15 years, I've done a lot of things to prevent myself from bolting.

In the early years, I often pivoted and switched business models to keep things fresh.

I added new creative projects, some of which kept me busy but weren’t good decisions for the business.

I truly enjoyed the climbing and early growth years of the business.

Later, once we were more established it was great to experience the stability by not trying to start new things or break things because I was bored.

Then the question came: why don't you sell the business?

I started receiving inquiries from people who buy businesses like mine.

I ignored most of them, only taking an occasional exploratory call and never feeling like it was a fit.

I was busy running my business, and I enjoyed it.

I was resisting selling because I loved our team, our clients, our partners, and the work we did together.

Close friends and family often asked me why I didn’t sell the business. “You could start something new!”

But I felt a sense of responsibility to my business and the people it supported. Plus, I didn’t have another business I wanted to start.

The environment changed

After resisting selling for years, and watching other companies in my space get acquired and thinking, "That's not for me."

Something changed.

My energy had shifted from running the business from a place of creation to trying to maintain and defend what we had built. I realized that I was holding the business back.

But other circumstances changed, too: my father got a cancer diagnosis and I had a wake-up call that life is short.

I wanted to spend time with my parents and children, without needing to check in on the business.

I wanted to deepen my caretaking skills and be there for my kids while they're young.

To give more time to our farm, which has always been a hobby, but could use more hands-on attention.

What does bolting look like?

I don't think we all have the same timelines.

Just like some plants are perennials that can survive any storm and come back strong, some plants are only meant to last one season.

I feel like I've extended my business' lifespan over the past 10 years.

The decision to pass the torch to a new owner felt like the inevitable sudden urge to flower and send seeds in all directions.

And now AccessAlly is in the stewardship of Blair Williams at Caseproof. It's only going to keep growing and flourishing.

The seeds have been scattered far and wide, and it's time for the next chapter.

To me, bolting is not giving up, even though it's not the same kind of “commercial productivity” that we’re used to.

It's the next unfolding. The next expression.

Feeding the bees and getting ready to pass on knowledge to the next generation.

At least, that’s my hope in this bolting phase.

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About Nathalie and the Momentum Memo

Nathalie Lussier is a writer, technologist, and regenerative farmer. Ten years ago she founded AccessAlly, a WordPress course and membership solution, which she recently exited.

She publishes The Momentum Memo which features nature analogies to make sense of the modern world of business and creativity.