One of my favorite movies of all time features a trampoline, a creepy arcade carnival mechanical soothsayer and one of the most romantic songs ever recorded, Moonlight Serenade. The movie’s protagonist, Josh Baskin, trapped within his prepubescent prison, yearns to be Big.

Isn’t that a common yearning for us all when we launch our businesses, projects and organizations? Don’t we all wish that we had unlimited budgets, plush offices in some groovy building and an ability to dominate the market?

If only we didn’t have to make the decision between paying ourselves a salary or stocking up on paper clips. If only we could order multiple cases of toner at a time instead of extricating the last cartridge from the copier and banging it against the machine, trying to coax one last ream of paper’s worth from it before it expires completely?

Firmly within the confines of Comparison City, population: 1, we wistfully long for the day when we can escape our necessity-driven scrimping and daily MacGyvering exercises in ingenuity. Wouldn’t it be great to make payroll AND keep yourself in shoe leather?

Of course, if we spend too much time envying and projecting the assumed Wonderfulness of Being Big, we’re in danger of not appreciating the Power of Being Puny, which includes the following benefits:

• Agility
• Fewer layers of bureaucracy
• Faster iterations
• Greater sense of immediacy and feedback from those we serve
• Flexing and developing skills we never knew we had
• The rush of success
• The thrill of creating something from scratch

I really love movies, and so I’ll cite a couple of other epic examples of Nimble versus Behemoth (or David and Goliath, depending on your preference). The first has to do with an X-Wing, a plucky fighter pilot with some serious Force Mojo and a big honkin’ moon-sized space station of destruction. The agility and confidence of The Small against The Big ends up making a huge difference to a lot of people.

Or consider the Battle of Helms Deep, when the whole she-bang falls because of a grate, an over confident king and a well-placed mutant Orc bearing explosives. In this case, one single individual was able to exploit a weakness to gain advantage.

The Power of Being Puny lies with being strategic, focused and responsive in a way a lumbering giant of an organization cannot. It’s true that you can’t turn the Queen Mary around on a dime. Same with organizations. There are certainly benefits to being big — don’t get me wrong. However, remember that great oaks don’t arrive on this planet 35 feet tall and in full leaf. They grow from acorns.

With that in mind, here are some lessons from trees:

• Nurture where you are
• Grow your network of roots
• Stay flexible
• Reach for the sky

Appreciate every step of your journey.

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