"Patience is a virtue."
You've probably heard that statement a number of times. And I don't disagree: people tend to be unnecessarily impatient with trivial things these days. For this post, however, I suggest that the competency here would come as a balance between patience and impatience.
In other words, impatience (in the right context) is also a virtue.
Allow me to refine with a couple of examples. We'll start off with patience. One of my favorite movies is The Social Network. For those not aware of the film's premise, the film is a dramatized version of Facebook's early years. (Very minor spoilers ahead.) At one point in the film, Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg approaches Justin Timberlake's Sean Parker about monetizing Facebook. Parker suggests that it might be too early to be thinking about that by dropping this infamous line:
"You know what's cooler than a million dollars? A billion dollars."
This applies to pretty much any business. Sometimes, we're so quick to jump on something that we're missing out on a potentially big opportunity. For a more intimate example, take this blog. If I wanted to monetize it today, I could do so by enabling Google's AdSense advertising. But that would create a poor reading experience, and I probably wouldn't make much money given my currently low readership.
We could dwell on this point more, but let's instead shift our focus on why impatience can be important. I have spoken a number of times on the importance of a person's time since it is the only truly non-renewable resource. Because time is precious, we have to be very mindful of how we use it.
To that end, we do need to be impatient in the appropriate context. I think back to my undergrad days where a lot of time was wasted in group efforts. Teammates spent a lot of time chatting and not a lot of time getting stuff done. I was working two jobs while simultaneously attending classes full time, so I really could have used this wasted time on other things.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying to be overtly rude or aggressive about it, but being kindly "impatient" to move things along isn't a bad thing. Some people might be a little offended, but if we want to be mindful of people's time, it's a necessary competency.
So, the billion dollar question then: where do we strike that balance? Unfortunately, there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer. You'll have to use a discerning mind in every scenario. If I were to suggest anything, I would err on the side of being more patient, especially in cases where you are in a relationship-building stage. In fact, I would suggest being extremely cautious with exercising impatience in any relationship-building stage.
That wraps up this post. Do you agree with the sentiments shared here? How would you suggest balancing that line between patience and impatience? Share for everybody to see down in the comments.
You've probably heard that statement a number of times. And I don't disagree: people tend to be unnecessarily impatient with trivial things these days. For this post, however, I suggest that the competency here would come as a balance between patience and impatience.
In other words, impatience (in the right context) is also a virtue.
Allow me to refine with a couple of examples. We'll start off with patience. One of my favorite movies is The Social Network. For those not aware of the film's premise, the film is a dramatized version of Facebook's early years. (Very minor spoilers ahead.) At one point in the film, Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg approaches Justin Timberlake's Sean Parker about monetizing Facebook. Parker suggests that it might be too early to be thinking about that by dropping this infamous line:
"You know what's cooler than a million dollars? A billion dollars."
This applies to pretty much any business. Sometimes, we're so quick to jump on something that we're missing out on a potentially big opportunity. For a more intimate example, take this blog. If I wanted to monetize it today, I could do so by enabling Google's AdSense advertising. But that would create a poor reading experience, and I probably wouldn't make much money given my currently low readership.
We could dwell on this point more, but let's instead shift our focus on why impatience can be important. I have spoken a number of times on the importance of a person's time since it is the only truly non-renewable resource. Because time is precious, we have to be very mindful of how we use it.
To that end, we do need to be impatient in the appropriate context. I think back to my undergrad days where a lot of time was wasted in group efforts. Teammates spent a lot of time chatting and not a lot of time getting stuff done. I was working two jobs while simultaneously attending classes full time, so I really could have used this wasted time on other things.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying to be overtly rude or aggressive about it, but being kindly "impatient" to move things along isn't a bad thing. Some people might be a little offended, but if we want to be mindful of people's time, it's a necessary competency.
So, the billion dollar question then: where do we strike that balance? Unfortunately, there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer. You'll have to use a discerning mind in every scenario. If I were to suggest anything, I would err on the side of being more patient, especially in cases where you are in a relationship-building stage. In fact, I would suggest being extremely cautious with exercising impatience in any relationship-building stage.
That wraps up this post. Do you agree with the sentiments shared here? How would you suggest balancing that line between patience and impatience? Share for everybody to see down in the comments.
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