No one is coming to save us !

When I was asked what matters to me in farming, business, and life, I kept returning to the same idea: No one is coming to save us.

I don’t mean that in a hopeless way. It’s a reminder that the future of agriculture, our businesses, our families, and our lives will not improve by waiting for the perfect time, season, or circumstances.

Farming teaches that lesson better than most things. The season does not wait until we are ready. Markets move whether we like it or not. Machinery breaks, staff leave, families change, health issues arise, and life can turn in an instant. In sports, the standard does not drop because you feel tired or unprepared. Business is much the same. At some point, regardless of the circumstances, someone still has to make a decision and take the lead.

 What matters to me is preparing people before that pressure arrives, especially young people. I have always believed they can do far more than we often let them show. My passion has been helping people achieve things they once thought were impossible, from becoming Junior World Rowing Champions to finding real pathways into farm ownership.

I have seen what happens when people are properly supported, held to a standard, trusted with responsibility, and assisted when they make mistakes. They grow. Not always in a straightforward way, and not without errors, but that is where the learning takes place. The mistake is rarely the main issue.

The bigger problem is when we never give people enough responsibility to make one. If a young person makes a decision that doesn’t work out, our role should not be to reclaim responsibility and prove they weren’t ready. Our role should be to sit with them, work through what happened, ask better questions, and help them understand where their judgment went wrong. That is how confidence is built.

That is why succession matters so much to me. Not succession as a legal document, and not as a family meeting everyone avoids until it can no longer be ignored. I mean succession as a living process that paves the way for the next generation to step into leadership, decision making, and ownership while the current generation is still there to guide, correct, and protect.

If we get this wrong, we risk more than just the business; we risk losing young people while they are still on the farm. We tell them there is a future, but we don’t always let them engage with it. We tell them they will lead one day, but we keep the important decisions out of their reach. Then we wonder why they leave, disengage, or stop believing there is a place for them in the business.

Farming should be something young people are proud to be part of. They should take pride in the product, the standards, the people they work with, and the role agriculture plays in building and feeding communities and building something real. But pride requires more than just words. It needs trust, opportunity, education, and a path that feels achievable.

Life is short. We only get one chance at it. Do the exciting things while we can. Follow your dreams, learn more than you think is necessary, ask better questions, be kind, and have some fun along the way.

Don’t fear failure. Seek out situations where failure is possible, because that is often where the most important growth takes place. Farming has never lacked tough people.

What it needs now are braver systems: families who communicate earlier, leaders who trust sooner, and businesses that prepare people before pressure reveals the gaps. No one is coming to save us.

But that also means we get to build it ourselves.

 If you got something out of this please reach out to Richard via [email protected].

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