A Message From Al Muzaurieta, Founder of Good Apple

THE MARIGOLD EFFECT

Many experienced gardeners follow a concept called companion planting: placing certain vegetables and plants near each other to improve growth for one or both plants. For example, rose growers plant garlic near their roses because it repels bugs and prevents fungal diseases. Among companion plants, the marigold is one of the best: It protects a wide variety of plants from pests and harmful weeds. If you plant a marigold beside most any garden vegetable, that vegetable will grow big and strong and healthy, protected and encouraged by its marigold.

Marigolds exist at Good Apple as well – encouraging, supporting and nurturing people on their way to success. If you can find at least one marigold at Good Apple and stay close to them, you will grow. Find more than one and you will positively thrive.

Many of you will be lucky enough to be planted close to a marigold. You can identify them by the way they congratulate you on a successful campaign, rather than asking why anyone would want this godforsaken job. Or by the way their offers to help sound sincere. Or just by how you feel when you’re with them: Are you calmer, more hopeful? Excited to get started on a task? Comfortable asking questions, even the stupid ones? If you feel good around this person, chances are they have some marigold qualities.

Find Your Marigold

BEWARE THE WALNUT TREES

While seeking out your marigolds, you’ll need to take note of the walnut trees. Successful gardeners avoid planting vegetables anywhere near walnut trees, which give off a toxic substance that can inhibit growth, wilt, and ultimately kill nearby vegetable plants. And sadly, if Good Apple is like most, walnut trees live among us. They may not seem dangerous at first. In fact, some may appear to be good – happy, social, well-organized. But here are some signs that you should keep your distance: Their take on this world is negative. Being around them makes you feel insecure, discouraged, overwhelmed, or embarrassed.

WALNUT TREES ARE POISON. Avoid them whenever you can. If you don’t, they will start to infect you, and soon you’ll hate work as much as they do.

Doing this may be a challenge: Your supervisor might be a walnut tree. Your co-worker may be one. You might work on a whole team of walnut trees, spending hours with them every week. Touching base with your marigolds will help flush out the toxins that build up from contact with the walnut trees. On top of that, simply identifying certain co-workers as walnut trees can help dilute their power over you. If I’d had a label I could mentally place on certain people where I worked, they would have had far less of an impact on me.

GET WHAT YOU CAN, WHERE YOU CAN

Your search for marigolds will yield imperfect results: Not everyone is all-marigold or all-walnut tree. There will be some at Good Apple who just make you happy – go to them for a mood boost. Some who aren’t terribly good at the media part, but love the clients to death – seek them out when you need to be reminded of how much you love clients, too. Others will take care of you – encourage you to rest, slack off a little, not beat yourself up. And some who are intensely into the craft, who always have a great strategy on hand and keep up on current research – they can really help you stretch your abilities. Learn who has what marigold qualities and get what you can from each of them.

Finally, try to find some compassion for the walnut trees. Their toxicity comes from a place of real pain, and they themselves probably fell under the influence of the walnut trees who came before them. Plus, it’s not like their complaints have no basis in reality. Good Apple is a ridiculously hard job, some say almost impossible – like climbing Mount Everest (if you’ll allow for one last metaphor). Still, you’re aware of the difficulty, and though many before you have failed, you have accepted the challenge.

Before you climb that peak, you’ll need to choose a sherpa to escort you through the trek. The first option is Walter Nutt, who starts by asking why in the world you’d want to do something like this. He describes the many others who have died trying to do this climb, how sick you’ll get, how people have polluted the trail, all but destroying what was once a pristine and beautiful mountain. The second option, Mary Gold, congratulates you on your courage, sits down with you to map out some important strategies, and finishes off by saying It’s a crazy-hard, mammoth task, but you know what? We’re going to kick that mountain’s ass.

Who do you want leading you up that peak?

Find your marigolds and stick close to them. Grow big and strong. Kick that mountain’s ass.

Come visit the website Good Apple

	Sincerely,
	Al