The gambler

How do you stay positive about your career when "success" or "failure" is outside your control?

Ask a farmer. They might not have a good answer but he or she will know what you're talking about.

For the life of me I'm not sure I'll ever come to terms with this aspect of life on the farm.

My sense of worth is definitely tied to my success at work - no matter how small the scale - and the satisfaction of a job well done, a project completed beautifully, a happy client, a great piece of media coverage is something I'm not sure I could live without.

This little fact hit me across the face again this week when the farmer rang to say that a proportion of his wheat crop was 'shot and sprung' after one heavy fall of rain, which means it's virtually worthless (well it is this year with prices so low), that this crappy result was largely outside his control.

Sure there's a lot of "what ifs" that can plague him about how the job could have been done better - in particular a big what if I'd only pushed a little harder and faster would we have got the wheat off before the rain? - but the real cause of our problems is that it has rained a little too much at the wrong time of the year.

There's a reason they call it a gamble! Sure there are some elements of dryland cropping can be controlled and you can maximize production and efficiencies through good practices like low till or no till and control traffic farming - but at the end of the day if it doesn't rain before the crop goes in and a few key times along the way then stop raining long enough to harvest it at the end of the year then you're going to have not much at all to show for your hard work. Except a big bill for all the input costs!

Someone once told me it's like a regular salaried person going to work for a whole year, then at the end of the year they get a paycheck for half as much as they expected, or some years no paycheck at all - just some expenses you've incurred on behalf of the business that you're now stuck with.

Honestly, he's my husband but I don't really know how he does it.

But I never was much of a gambler!