The Potted Plant That Refused to Give Up: A Lesson in Resilience

Every now and then, I feel like departing from the steady rhythm of home improvement blogging and simply looking at the fascinating phenomena that is life. Because life, unlike a kitchen or a bathroom, does not come with a blueprint. There is no work triangle to optimise, no wall chasing to reroute the pipes, no quartz countertop to crown the finished product. Life is messy, unpredictable, and sometimes – downright cruel.

But it is also, if we pay attention, full of quiet teachers.

I once visited the Mtambisi apartment – yes, the same Mtambisi family whose kitchen makeover I wrote about years ago. While there, I noticed something strange, fascinating, and deeply instructive.

There was a potted plant. Nothing exotic – just an ordinary, succulent houseplant sitting in a pot filled with soil. The leaves were green, the stem was sturdy, and everything seemed perfectly normal. But then I looked closer.

There were roots that had germinated above the soil.

For some peculiar, almost rebellious reason, these roots had not penetrated the soil like the other roots on the same plant. They had grown outward, and then – beyond the rim of the pot. At that point, the owners had placed a glass jar filled with water next to the pot. And that errant root? It had gravitated toward the water, set root in the jar, and continued to grow.

The fascinating phenomena of a plant growing in two media at the same time 

Here was a single plant, thriving in two separate media at the same time – in the soil and, the water next to the pot. I stood there and thought: Wow.

And then I thought again: What if we could learn to be like that plant?

Now, I should warn you: this piece has nothing to do with work, and everything to do with work. Nothing to do with strategy, and everything to do with strategy. It is a story about a plant. But if you run a business, manage a team, or are simply trying to build something with your own hands, I suspect you will find the four lessons that follow uncomfortably relevant.

"For there is hope even for a tree. If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its shoots will not fail. Though its root grows old in the ground and its stump dies in the dry soil, at the scent of water it will bud and produce branches like a sapling." — Job 14:7-9, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures

I have thought of that passage many times since standing in front of that plant. Job speaks of a tree cut down, a stump left for dead in dry soil — and yet, at the mere scent of water, it buds again. That is the same stubborn, unkillable impulse I saw in the Mtambisi apartment: a root that sensed water across a gap and simply grew toward it, refusing the soil's verdict on its future.

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Lesson One: Not All Roots Have to Go Down in The Soil

We are told from childhood that success follows a straight line. Go to school. Get a job. Buy a house. Save for retirement. Stay in your lane. Follow the rules.

But life does not always cooperate. The soil you were planted in might be dry. The pot might be too small. The sunlight might be blocked by circumstances beyond your control. And when that happens, many of us do the same thing: we throw our hands up. We say, "It's not working." We give up.

But that plant did not give up. When the soil became crowded or perhaps no longer sufficient, it did not wither. It did not die. It sent out a root in a completely different direction – above ground, against gravity, against every botanical rule. And it found water.

A close-up shot of the same plant

The lesson? Sometimes, the way forward is not down. Sometimes it is sideways, upward, or in a direction you never considered. Do not be so attached to the conventional path that you refuse to see the unconventional one. Your breakthrough may not come from digging deeper into the same dry soil. It may come from reaching out – to a new skill, a new relationship, a new way of thinking.

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Lesson Two: Adaptability Is Not Weakness

That plant did not abandon its original roots. It kept them in the soil, drawing what nourishment it could. But it also grew a new root into the water jar. It adapted. It diversified its sources of life.

We, as humans, often pride ourselves on stubbornness. "I will make this work or nothing at all." "I refuse to change direction." "If I can't do it my way, I won't do it." That is not strength. That is rigidity. And rigidity, unlike resilience, leads to breaking.

The plant teaches us that adaptability is not surrender. It is intelligence. When one source of nourishment fails, find another. When one career path closes, open another. When the people you counted on let you down, reach out to new ones. You are not betraying your past by surviving. You are honouring your future.

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Lesson Three: You Can Thrive in More Than One Medium

Soil and water. Two completely different environments. Yet the same plant grew roots in both.

How often have we told ourselves that we can only be one thing? Only a businessperson, not an artist. Only a parent, not a dreamer. Only a survivor, not a thriver.

The Mtambisi plant did not ask permission to grow into the water. It simply grew. And in doing so, it became something rare and beautiful – a plant that lived in two worlds at once.

A power lesson in levelling up
with life's circumstances 

You too can live in multiple worlds. You can be a renovator by day and a writer by night. You can be heartbroken and still hopeful. You can fail at one thing and succeed at another. The medium does not define the plant. The plant defines the plant.

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Lesson Four: Someone May Have Placed the Jar – But You Still Have to Reach

I asked Tindo about the glass jar. He said, "We saw the root growing out of the pot, so we put water there and the root gravitated towards the water."

Someone placed the jar. But the root still had to grow toward it. The root still had to stretch, to trust, to take the risk of leaving the familiar soil behind.

In your life, there may be people who place jars of water in your path – a friend who offers help, a mentor who gives advice, a stranger who opens a door. But you still have to reach. You still have to grow toward the opportunity. No one can do the reaching for you.

Do not wait for the perfect conditions. The plant did not wait for a better pot. It grew with what it had, toward what it could sense. And it found water.

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Final Thoughts

The next time you feel like throwing your hands up and giving up, remember that potted plant in the Mtambisi apartment. Remember the root that refused to obey gravity. Remember the plant that thrived in soil and water at the same time.

You are not stuck. You are not broken. You are simply being invited to grow in a different direction.

The soil may be dry. But somewhere – above ground, against the odds, in a jar placed by someone who believes in you – there is water.

Reach for it.

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For those who need a reminder that resilience is always possible – please share this with someone who might be struggling. And if you need a hand with your home, your kitchen, or your bathroom, I am still just a call away.

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