Investments, such as those in the previous section, require patient and uncertain waiting for their benefits to accrue – and perhaps Solomon is continuing the theme by comparing them here to clouds slowly filling with rain. However, the important message in this section may be the importance of being pro-active, rather than passive, of actually making good things happen by our own efforts, by planning and doing, rather than waiting on circumstance.

When clouds are full of water, they burst and gravity makes the rain pour down to the ground, where it makes possible the growth of plants, thereby saving the gardener or farmer the time and expense of irrigating his crops.

Like a rain cloud, a tree also grows and bulks out -- then, when the time is right, the pull of gravity, aided perhaps by the wind, may make it fall down as well. However, unlike the rain which soaks into the ground, disperses itself and is absorbed by plants, the fallen tree simply lies there in the place where it falls, doing no good at all —a potential source of valuable timber that will then slowly rot away and disappear, unless some energetic person intervenes, and takes appropriate action.

Entrepreneurs, in effect, work miracles by consciously intervening in the natural order of things in order to make things happen that would not happen otherwise – and by spotting opportunities to do so.

As the woodsman eyes the fallen tree, he conceives a project – imagining the specific series of do-able actions he can confidently and capably undertake in order to turn the log into finished timber products. In this process, which Solomon may well be using to model the classic business project method, the tree is topped and tidied up then sawn into a variety of progressively smaller pieces of appropriate shape and size in order to make possible the achievement of specific objectives -- such as planks, fence posts, cladding, roofing timbers, even furniture, depending on the kind of wood. The project method breaks broad goals down into specific objectives, or strategies into tactics, in a similar manner.

As already noted, Solomon’s proverbs are multi-faceted, and although a rain cloud up in the sky is easily visible to all, the fallen tree may be out there in the forest, waiting, like a business opportunity, to be searched out -- perhaps being overlooked by those who busily pass by, or never being found at all.

Do you make things happen – or simply hope that somehow something good will happen of its own accord? What project opportunities might you be ignoring? What innovation and improvement can you personally undertake? What important problems can you solve?

Do you use your creative imagination to visualize your way through projects, carefully identifying the specific steps or tactics required to implement your strategies and make it all happen?