“Go as far as you can see, and when you get there, you will always be able to see farther.”
— commonly attributed to Zig Ziglar
My father, Daniel Amoafo-Yeboah, used to say something much simpler: “No road will climb a tree.”
As a child, one might hear that merely as a curious expression.
But the older I become, the more wisdom I see in it.
A road may twist.
It may climb a hill.
It may descend into a valley.
It may disappear around a corner.
It may encounter a mountain, a river, a forest or some other obstruction.
But the road does not climb the tree.
It finds another way.
And perhaps there is a profound lesson about life hidden in those few words.
We Want to See Too Far
We often hesitate because we cannot see the entire road ahead.
We want certainty before we move.
Where will this decision take me?
Will the business succeed?
Will the idea work?
Will the relationship endure?
Will the investment pay off?
What happens after the next turn?
But perhaps we are asking for something life was never designed to give us.
We cannot always see around the corner.
And we don’t need to.
We only need enough visibility to take the next intelligent step.
Then something interesting happens.
Movement changes what we can see.
Walk a kilometer and the landscape changes.
Climb a hill and a valley appears.
Turn the corner and another stretch of road becomes visible.
What looked like the end of the road was simply the end of our vision.
No Road Will Climb a Tree
My father’s expression adds something important to Ziglar’s observation.
Ziglar tells us to keep moving toward the horizon.
My father’s saying reminds us that the path itself will adapt to obstacles.
A road does not argue with a tree.
It does not abandon its destination because something stands in its way.
It goes around.
Human progress works much the same way.
When one approach fails, we try another.
When technology reaches a limitation, someone invents around it.
When circumstances change, societies adapt.
When knowledge encounters a mystery, inquiry searches for another route.
Progress rarely travels in a straight line.
Continuity does not mean following the same road forever. It means preserving the journey even when the road changes.
Progress Creates Visibility
This leads to an important principle:
We do not always know enough in order to move. Sometimes we move in order to know more.
Action produces experience.
Experience produces knowledge.
Knowledge changes our choices.
Those choices reveal possibilities that could not have been visible from where we began.
So the sequence becomes:
Move > Learn > Preserve > Adapt > See farther > Move again.
That is Continuity.
Not the preservation of the road.
The preservation of what the journey has taught us.
The Road Can Change
This distinction matters.
Sometimes we become so attached to a particular route that we confuse the route with the destination.
But Continuity does not require the preservation of form.
A company may change its product.
A society may change its institutions.
A technology may become obsolete.
A person may change careers.
A road may change direction.
What matters is whether the valuable state accumulated along the journey; knowledge, experience, capability, relationships and wisdom, is carried forward.
The road can change.
The journey continues.
Two Pieces of Wisdom
Separated by geography and experience, Zig Ziglar and my father were expressing two sides of the same truth.
One says:
Go as far as you can see.
The other says:
No road will climb a tree.
Together they offer a philosophy of progress.
You do not need to know the entire route.
Start with what you can see.
Move.
When you encounter an obstacle, adapt.
Carry forward what you have learned.
And from your new position, look again.
You will see farther.
There will be another road.
There will be another possibility.
There will be another horizon.
Perhaps that is how most meaningful things in human history have been accomplished.
Not because someone could see the entire journey from the beginning.
But because someone was willing to begin.
The horizon moves with you.
And when the road encounters a tree, it finds a way around.
