Although it might be said that farming is the world’s second-oldest profession, I would argue it is more important than the first. For generations, farming has been foundational to local communities. Two hundred years ago, 95% of our country’s population was directly engaged in farming; today that number is closer to 1%, with far-reaching consequences.
Farming Shapes Character
Long before agribusiness, subsidies, legal weed, or seed-to-sale tracking, the farm stood as the grocery store, a career, and the schoolhouse all wrapped into one. It shaped young individuals into capable adults, provided sustenance, and created natural cohesion within families and communities. Farming was one of life’s great teachers, and it tied us directly to food security and meeting one’s own needs through an intimate connection with the earth.
Over time, cultivating the land sculpts your character. The archetypal farmer is real; stoic, methodical, delivering metered wisdom with a lazy smile, and there’s a reason for this.
It’s difficult to take raw land and grow a good crop, and near impossible to do so successfully without an even disposition. Farming reliably hones some of the most important skills in life. Discipline, patience, faith, humility. It requires us to work well together and care deeply for other living things. To pay attention, do our best, accept reality as it is, and move forward, continually.
The Nature of Success on the Farm
In today’s world, we are taught from an early age that success is measured by outside validation. It is more important to get approval or “likes” than to be empirically effective. That pleasing and politicking are of equal importance to striving and achieving. That life is fair, hard work always pays off, and that we are somehow owed some measure of success.
This all falls to the wayside when you go to bed exhausted from delivering your best efforts and wake up each day to real-time, real-life feedback on the success or failure of your project. There is no ambiguity in it. When nurturing crops and working the land, you must plan to perfection, then execute imperfectly. You must be steady in your resolve. You will think you’re losing and then win. Other times, a clear win will slip through your fingers in the final moments.
Through it all, who are you? How do you shoulder these burdens and successes? How do you find yourself in those quiet moments when you are all alone? Are satisfaction and fulfillment critical inputs for your crop, or merely another output, dependent on quality and yield? For any successful farmer, I promise you, it is the former.
Each day, you must remember your role. Your obligation: both to plants and to people. You are tasked not only with providing the ingredients for nourishment but also the reassurance that it will continue in perpetuity. This is a deeply spiritual task if you allow it to be, and I recommend that you do. We all find our own way to weather the storms, both internal and external, and a good farmer will cultivate successfully through either.
Grit, Humility, and Growing Riches
Farming takes intention and grit. You can’t just start on a whim, and you can’t stop halfway. You must always play the cards dealt to you, and do so with enthusiasm. Anyone who works hard labor or cares for living things knows that a bit of levity is necessary to get through the day. In fact, when times are tough and the road ahead looks riddled with insurmountable challenges, it is precisely the time to band together and create your best show. This is often easier said than done.
At times, the work is grueling, layered on top of a never-ending gamble, with so many variables you can’t hope to control. It is a metaphor for life. At best, it’s a complex web of interdependent logistics. At worst, it’s degenerate gambling. Luckily for us, it’s clear by our mere existence that with farming, as with life, if we play smart, the house odds are in our favor.
Farmers are continually at the top of the suicide demographic, and I can tell you why. You pour your heart and soul into something so delicate and beautiful, and its success or failure can easily feel like a reflection of your skill or even self-worth. Carrying a deficient crop to harvest is a daily heartbreak every farmer has lived through; a long, hard journey to a known tragic destination, often months of daily hardship to get to an uncelebrated finish line.
But with time comes the wisdom to celebrate anyway. The effort, the process of getting there, completion, the beauty in the small moments, and the opportunity to begin again. As in life, the worst seasons often do the best job of showing us who we are and who we must become.
Easy times give us the lesson that we need not celebrate too headily when the stars align; not get caught up in self-grandeur and proclaim the genius of our execution, but instead remain humble and grateful for the opportunity and good fortune to be engaged in the beautiful ancient practice of farming.
Farming Cannabis
I began in cannabis as a medical marijuana entrepreneur, advocate, and activist running commercial indoor facilities, and ultimately found the world of regenerative outdoor farming. I’ve won some and lost some, but the path of bringing this medicine to the people has been a true blessing. These are hard-won lessons from years on the front lines navigating the challenges of cultivation, policy reform, shifting markets, and an industry steadily morphing into another arm of commercial agriculture. At times, it feels as if cannabis culture may be fading, but as farmers, we are reminded that this plant’s deeper teachings are ancient and unwavering.
Some years the crop grows well, and some years the farmer does. This is the wisdom.
Whether it is your best year or your worst, take a deep breath, give thanks, and keep going. That is how, as a farmer, you can grow richer with each passing year.
About the Author
Jesse Sgambati draws from a lifetime spent in the hardscrabble cannabis trade of Northern California’s Emerald Triangle. Having watched it evolve from outlaw tradition to regulated industry, he now runs a state-sanctioned farm shaped by investors, regulators, and market forces unimaginable a generation ago. In this piece, he distills that journey into a stoic yet motivational call to action, capturing the grit, resilience, and unexpected rewards of those who choose to work the land. A reminder that while dreams of fortune often collide with stark realities, farmers can always find a path to true wealth.
