As an organic vegetable farmer and entrepreneur, I have learned that to be successful in any field, you have to deal with uncertainty.
It’s easy to fall into a rut and settle for what we already know, but this can hinder our creativity and ability to innovate. By taking risks and stepping out of our comfort zone, we can make discoveries and find new solutions to the issues at hand.
A few years ago, after creating my own vegetable farm and gaining solid field experience, I felt the need to push the boundaries of my activities. I took an unpaid sabbatical to write a practical guidebook describing my working techniques. Many publishers rejected my book project, but I refused to take those no’s as definitive answers. I gave more than 200 talks and trainings, often in English, a language I did not fully master, and built a reputation. My hard work finally paid off: I finally found a buyer, and my book sold over 220,000 copies and was translated into ten languages.
A few years later, I had the extraordinary opportunity to design a world-class ecological farm for an influential Quebec patron. At first, I felt enormous pressure: the project was ambitious, exploring new territory in the field of regenerative agriculture. But again, my reaction to the uncertainty was to redouble my efforts to succeed. That’s where Ferme des Quatre-Temps was born, where we have trained dozens of exceptional organic farmers over the years, and developed a master class that is sold in 90 countries.
Today, I find myself once again facing the unknown. After seven years at Les Quatre-Temps, I have decided to explore a new playground by opening my own restaurant, Espace Old Mill, a farm table serving seasonal vegetables from a brand new garden. This is a work in progress, and its success is not guaranteed.
My journey has been marked by successes, yes, but also by doubts and uncertainty. To overcome these challenges, it is essential to have deep self-confidence, to believe in your ideas, and to consider failure as a step in learning. Over the years, I have learned to trust the obstacles that may arise on the paths I blaze because they open up new perspectives, and have taken me further than I ever imagined.
