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The Art of Patience: Why Rushing Gets You Nowhere Fast
The coffee machine broke down at 7:47 AM on the worst possible Tuesday. Three board members arriving in twenty minutes, presentation slides still uploading, and my assistant calling in sick. Most people would've lost their minds. Instead, I made tea, rearranged the meeting room, and turned what could've been a disaster into the most productive session we'd had all quarter.
That moment taught me something I wish I'd learnt fifteen years earlier in my consulting career: patience isn't just about waiting. It's about strategic thinking when everyone else is panicking.
The Impatience Epidemic
We're living through what I call the "microwave mentality" – everything needs to happen yesterday, and if it doesn't, we assume something's broken. I see it everywhere. Clients expecting overnight transformations. Employees getting frustrated when promotions don't materialise after six months. Hell, I've watched grown adults have meltdowns because their coffee order took four minutes instead of three.
The irony? This desperate need for speed is actually slowing us all down.
Last month, I worked with a Melbourne-based tech startup whose CEO was convinced they needed to pivot every fortnight. Product launches half-baked. Marketing campaigns pulled before they could gain traction. Staff turnover through the roof because nobody could keep up with the constant direction changes. Classic case of impatience masquerading as agility.
We spent two sessions just sitting in silence. Literally. I made him wait thirty minutes before starting our meeting. He nearly walked out twice, but something clicked around minute twenty-five. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is... nothing.
Why Patience Actually Pays Off
Here's what drives me mad about the current business climate – everyone's so focused on "failing fast" they've forgotten about succeeding slowly.
Take relationship building. You can't rush trust. I've seen salespeople blow million-dollar deals because they couldn't wait another week for the client to make their decision. Meanwhile, the patient ones are building relationships that last decades.
My biggest client relationship started with eighteen months of casual conversations over coffee. No pitches. No proposals. Just patience. When they finally needed consulting work, guess who got the call?
The compound effect of patience is real. Warren Buffett didn't become a billionaire by day-trading crypto. He bought good companies and waited. Apple didn't become the world's most valuable company overnight – they spent years perfecting products while everyone else rushed buggy releases to market.
The Physical Reality of Rushing
Here's something nobody talks about: impatience is literally killing us.
I learnt this the hard way during my first major burnout in 2019. Stress-induced migraines, insomnia, the whole package. My doctor – brilliant woman, completely no-nonsense – sat me down and explained how chronic impatience triggers the same physiological responses as being chased by a tiger.
Elevated cortisol. Increased blood pressure. Compromised immune system. All because I couldn't wait for things to unfold naturally.
Now I practice what I call "strategic patience." Not passive waiting, but active preparation while things develop. The ABCs of supervising actually covers this beautifully in their management modules – how patience in leadership development creates stronger teams than rushing people through promotions.
The Patience Paradox in Australian Business
Australian business culture has this interesting contradiction. We're laid-back on the surface but absolutely frantic underneath. "She'll be right" while frantically checking emails every thirty seconds.
I've worked with companies across Perth, Brisbane, and Sydney, and the pattern's identical. Everyone wants instant results but won't invest the time for proper planning. It's like wanting a perfectly cooked roast but cranking the oven to maximum heat.
Take construction – an industry I spent five years consulting in before moving into general business advisory. The best tradies I know are patient craftsmen. They measure twice, cut once. They know that rushing a foundation means the entire structure's compromised. Yet their project managers are often pushing for shortcuts that create bigger problems down the line.
When Patience Goes Wrong
Look, I'm not advocating for endless procrastination. There's a difference between strategic patience and analysis paralysis.
I worked with one organisation – won't name them, but they're a major player in financial services – where "patience" became code for "avoiding difficult decisions." Meetings about meetings. Committees to form committees. That's not patience; that's cowardice dressed up in business speak.
Real patience involves preparation. It's doing the groundwork while waiting for the right moment. Like that chess player who seems to be thinking forever but actually has three moves planned ahead.
The key is recognising when speed matters and when it doesn't. Customer complaints? Handle immediately. Strategic pivots? Take your bloody time.
Building Your Patience Muscle
Patience isn't innate – it's learnable. Here's what's worked for me and my clients:
Start small. Instead of checking emails every five minutes, try every hour. Instead of interrupting people mid-sentence, wait three seconds after they finish speaking. Baby steps.
Practice the pause. Before responding to that frustrating email, wait. Before making that impulsive purchase decision, sleep on it. Before firing that underperforming employee, dig deeper into what's really going on.
Understand your triggers. For me, it's technology failing at crucial moments. For others, it's people arriving late to meetings. Identify what makes you impatient, then prepare strategies for those situations.
The workplace abuse training sessions I occasionally attend always emphasise this point – most workplace conflicts escalate because someone couldn't wait thirty seconds before responding defensively.
The Long Game Mindset
Twenty years from now, will anyone remember that your project took an extra month? Unlikely. Will they remember the quality of your work and how you made them feel during the process? Absolutely.
This mindset shift changed everything for me. Instead of competing on speed, I started competing on thoroughness. Instead of promising quick fixes, I promised lasting solutions. My client retention rate jumped from 60% to 94% within two years.
Amazon took seven years to turn a profit. Netflix nearly went bankrupt waiting for streaming technology to mature. These companies understood something crucial: timing matters more than speed.
The Patience Premium
Here's a controversial opinion that might ruffle some feathers: impatient people are cheaper to hire but more expensive to keep.
They make fast decisions that require expensive corrections later. They burn through relationships that take years to rebuild. They create stress cultures that drive away top talent.
Meanwhile, patient professionals command premium rates because they deliver premium results. They build instead of just doing. They prevent instead of just fixing.
I charge 40% more than my competitors, and my calendar's booked six months out. Not because I'm faster, but because I'm more patient. My clients know that working with me means fewer revisions, fewer misunderstandings, and fewer fires to fight later.
The Modern Patience Challenge
Technology hasn't made patience easier – it's made it essential. With instant communication comes the expectation of instant responses. With rapid market changes comes pressure for rapid adaptation.
But the companies thriving aren't the ones moving fastest; they're the ones moving most deliberately. They're patient enough to understand their customers deeply before building products. Patient enough to hire the right people instead of the available people. Patient enough to build sustainable systems instead of quick fixes.
Your Patience Action Plan
Stop glorifying busy. Start celebrating thoughtful.
Next time someone pressures you for an immediate decision, try this: "I want to give this the consideration it deserves. Let me get back to you by [specific time]." Watch how often they agree, even when they initially claimed urgency.
Build waiting periods into your processes. Twenty-four hours before sending that heated email. One week before making hiring decisions. One month before major strategic changes.
The businesses that will dominate the next decade won't be the fastest – they'll be the most patient. While everyone else is running around like headless chooks, they'll be the ones thinking clearly, planning carefully, and executing brilliantly.
Patience isn't passive. It's the most active thing you can do.
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