FARMERS ARE NOT INSANE
What I learned from my conversation with Ben Voss.
It takes an incredibly strategic and agile mind and energy to manage family, farming, and fame as a CEO, but that is exactly what Ben Voss has been navigating for some time now, and there are many lessons along the way.
On Ben’s big WHY for farming…
“I loved farming my whole youth.
I started welding when I was six years old and running around in the machine shop, following my dad and learning all the skill sets.
I think I shifted my first standard transmission when I was 7.
I’ve always kept myself pretty grounded, I like getting my hands dirty.
About 10 years ago, we bought some of the land from my parents.
I was still working full time, but we didn’t want to lose the chance.
We bought my great grandfather’s original homestead, and we built a house.
I wanted our kids to grow up in that environment, the same way I got to grow up.
I wanted them to see how a garden is planted, and how equipment is repaired.
I didn’t want that knowledge lost.
That was my primary motivation for farming, but I also had to make it work financially.
So I took it as a bit of a challenge.
How do I make a smaller farm profitable in today’s world?
And do it in a way that I can still manage a career at the same time?”
Being a CEO and an entrepreneurial farmer shares some of the same risk profiles where the stakes are high and it’s not for the faint of heart…
“The stakes get really big when you’re in that seat, meaning there’s only a handful of people in the world that end up in executive positions and it’s not for the faint of heart.
There are some very good CEOs in the world that have learned how to navigate that.
And then there’s everybody else.
Sometimes it just doesn’t go the right way and things don’t work out.
It’s just like farming.
People will say to me “Why are farmers so grouchy and pessimistic all the time?
And that’s not it, they’re not pessimistic. They are simply preventing insanity by talking through scenarios of possible downside.
I love that you can get through that conversation.
It’s still convincing yourself that it’s going to work in the end and you plant the crop against all odds.
Well, good for you.
You’re not insane.
They talk a lot about the mental health issues in agriculture now.
It’s important to bring them out of the shadows, but that is the reality…most farmers wrestle with the risk.
“I’ve put all this money in the ground for a hail storm to come along and wipe it out. How could I have control?”
And sometimes business is like that.
You have best laid plans and you put all these things together and you’ve got what looks like a great team and partners.
And then it’s fragile.
Sometimes things crumble because somebody put a chisel in a strategic spot and it’s cracking the foundation.”
On his new entrepreneurial startup AEROW Manufacturing LTD., which helps farmers accelerate harvest…
“I’ve been blessed with the ability to have a city life and country life.
It’s hard to split your time and have two things to look after, but I have found a way to manage.
It’s good to get my hands dirty again, and it’s nice to be solving a real problem.
You look at what people are doing…and it’s like, “you’ve got a solution in search of a problem,” and it was kind of fun to have somebody come along and say, “well, I think I’ve solved a neat problem. If we could figure out how to build it, I think farmers would want to buy one.”
There’s something very attractive about just that good old fashioned, “Let’s get ‘er done, let’s build this thing, and get it out.
Let’s not overcomplicate it.””
You can see/hear more about my conversation with Ben Voss on the Growing the Future website.
