Patience is a virtue, or so the old wives who tell tales would have us believe.
Being told to sit down and wait your turn has been ingrained into our minds since we were five years old. As we get older, patience is something that has to be practiced. We learn to hold our emotions, sit back and look for the correct path. We plan, scheme and do the math. We believe that when we finally reach our destination, whether it be physical, geographical or virtual, the payoff will be better.
Lately, as consumers of media and gadgetry, we appear to have everything at our fingertips and the need for patience appears to wane. We live in a “gotta have it now” society. If you don’t want to get out of your car to get your artery clogging fast food, no need! You can drive up to a window and in short order, drive away with a bag full of grease. Food, movies, clothes and other delights can be ordered off the internet and for just a little more money, can be sitting on your doorstep within 24 hours.
Going to a baseball game? No need to wait for the tickets, you can print them out at home. Ah the wonders of modern science!
I have always believed myself to be a patient man. In fact I’ve been told by several close friends and family that I was most patient for a large part of the early oughts.
Over the last few days I have been thinking more and more about patience. The idea spurred from trying to pre-order the new iPhone 4 on June 15.
If you haven’t heard, AT&T’s systems crashed harder than a cars on the Long Island Expressway being driven by Billy Joel and Lindsey Lohan, during the pre-order period. I tried all day to get mine and the experience was eerily similar to trying to buy Dead tickets in 1989 (we’d call Connecticut and Philly Ticketmaster numbers trying to trick the system). My order would get hung up, I’d get the internet busy signal (than damn hour glass) or in one case an actual apache server message that the box had crashed.
Why do I need to have the new iPhone on June 24, when it is supposed to ship? I don’t. I waited till iPod gene before I moved from MiniDisc. I waited until iPhone 3 before I moved from Blackberry. I just really wanted to be among the first to get one. This time around I was going to throw patience to the wind and be the first on my block to have the new toy tool.
Alas, the pre-orders have been shut down and I will have to wait until July and get one in the store. Which after a few days of reflection makes sense. I can deal with what I have now for a few more weeks.
So, back to patience… why do we feel the need to get things first and beat out all the people around us?Why do we feel the need to stampede Wal-Marts on the day after Thanksgiving?
In business, why do we feel the need to make as much as we can in the short run and forget about the long run? I have always believed that there should be constant re-investment in whatever product or service you make. Wouldn’t you rather have sustained income versus a quick lump sum? The same principal can be applied to how we work. Sure, we don’t want to waste time, but rushing through a job produces disastrous results. There should be a healthy amount of research, development and production in everything we do and the steps should be followed in that order. Sometimes we tend to be practitioners of “Fire! Ready! Aim!”
So, sit back, think, study and perfect your craft. Be patient, be diligent and you will get the payoff.
Oddly enough, one of the greatest songs about patience was sung by a man who had none of it.
Enjoy.
