Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” 

I thought of that line during a re-watch of The Martian. There’s a scene where astronaut Mark Watney rigs a makeshift greenhouse on Mars. Just a lone guy in a battered NASA suit, hauling buckets of recycled water to potatoes he planted in Martian dirt. It’s pretty messy, unfamiliar territory, and sort of how real growth happens back here on Earth. 

And, what if I want the same results without the spacesuit? I’ll stick to some fundamentals.

Show Up With the Can Even When It’s Heavy

Gardens and goals don’t really care about good intentions. They respond to steady effort: the daily five-minute check-in with your kid, the extra rep in the gym, the weekly handshake with a new customer, the splash of water every morning. Skip a week and the soil gets hard. The leaves start to wither. Keep at it and roots dig deep, even if there’s no flower for a while. Keep watering.

Prune the Dead Wood

Any decent gardener carries a sharp pair of clippers. Cut the projects that drain time and deliver nothing. Trim the meetings that could be emails. That is not quitting. It’s channeling resources to the branches that will actually bear fruit.

Respect the Off-Season

Okay, so Watney’s crops looked dead more than once. Yours will too, whether it’s a slow sales quarter or a slump in motivation. Dormant doesn’t mean done. Keep watering the fundamentals: training, relationships, cash flow. Spring always circles back.

Dig in as a Crew

One man can lug buckets but a crew can run irrigation. Mentor a rookie at work. Volunteer one Saturday with the neighborhood clean-up. Buy your gear from the local hardware store instead of the big-box chain. Small moves, big impact, on you and the town you live in.

I wonder, if a (fictional) guy on Mars can coax potatoes out of red dust with duct tape and grit, can we handle a little dirt in our own backyard? Plant, water, repeat. Simple, not easy.

Ready to Put These Tips to Work?

Join us at The Nexus—a community where business owners, builders, and locals swap practical moves for keeping their “gardens” alive. Step in, grab a shovel, and start watering with us!

Visit The Nexus

The Nexus – 461 Sandy Creek Rd, Suite 4109, Fayetteville, GA

Catch us Monday through Friday starting at 9:00 AM!

Visit our website to learn more: thenexus.community