You drive through the flat arid lands until you can see the mountains in the distance.  The scenery changes to low hills spotted with pinon and cedar.  After a time you are driving through a mountain valley.  The valley floor is green and has a small stream.  the slopes are steep and rocky.  There is little grass or ground cover, but they are thick with pine.  Except in one spot, where the hillside itself is also lush.

One man who lives in that valley has done nothing to improve his hill side because he is disorganized and lazy.

Another man who lives in that valley has done nothing to improve his hill side because he is hyper-organized and efficient.  He ran the numbers and realized that the cost in his time would not allow enough agricultural production from the hillside to meet his expected rate of return.

Then there is the man whose hillside is lush.  He thinned the trees so that rain and light could reach the ground.  More importantly, day by day, rock by rock, he slowly terraced the hillside so that the water would not rush off and down.  Slowly the grasses took and the soil built.

Years from now all three men will be gone.  The lazy man’s hillside will still be a ponderosa desert.  The efficient man’s hillside will still be a ponderosa desert.  The man who loved his land’s hillside will still be lush.