The mule

"Si comences com un cavall acabes com un vell.  Si comences com una mula acabes com un jove."

My host... mother, shall I call her? - we occasionally hike the mountain together, here, at La Solana.  She shared with me this Catalonian proverb as we were panting up a hill one day: "If you start like a horse you finish like an old person.  If you start like a mule you finish like a young person." 

Patience is definitely necessary when starting or even thinking about starting a business.  In choppy English, Rosa recounted how the first ten to fifteen years of their life in the mountains were very difficult.  I know that she and Toni have more time for themselves (and their very recent grand-daughter) since they sold their herd of goats, but I don't know if they ever thought about giving up altogether.  Toni has repeatedly shared with me that his greatest motivation in life is to live in the country and to be outside, and most days, Rosa confides, Toni doesn't come into the house until dark.  So I suppose you don't even let the thought of giving up cross your mind, not when you are living your dream.  The most important question to ask yourself, Toni insists, is 'what do I want?'  Having grown up outside of Barcelona, Toni and Rosa both knew they wanted to live in the countryside, so they found different ways of making it a reality.  On a property with no electricity or running water, they began raising rabbits, they purchased a few goats, they started making cheese, then they moved to their current location and continued with cheese at it was the most profitable exploit.  "It's possible."  Toni often reminds me, "Everything's possible."

I suppose if you have enough determination to last you fifteen years, everything really is possible.  To start with very little and keep at it, looking at the end goal like there's nothing that could possibly stand in your way, yeah: everything's possible.  I just need to start like a mule.