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When patience is not at the table, it is almost always associated with a trait that creates a vulnerability in building something meaningful. And so I’m incredibly into patience. I think it has been foundational in my happiness, both as a human and as an entrepreneur. And I think that some of the most successful businesses of all time, that when you look under the hood and you take away the masks and the facades, you can really see that patience was one of the biggest ingredients.
Understand your employees’ motivations
When you’re building an organization, you have to know why people are doing what they’re doing. I think when leaders are trying to build patience, they need to focus on two things, bonuses and fear. So if you’re preaching patience, but you’re creating bonuses based on every 30 days, how much sales they do, you’re talking out of both sides of your mouth and you’re a hypocrite, because all of your employees will go towards that. And if you’re in a direct conflict of patience, you may want to tweak the bonus structure, and the way you give them, and what you reward.
One of the reasons most people don’t have patience is ’cause of fear. They fear failing and so they try to go fast because if it’s not going well, they can’t deal with the music, AKA, the judgment of the people around them. As a leader, you must navigate, and most importantly, eradicate fear at all costs. That doesn’t mean accountability, ’cause that’s required. That doesn’t mean a million things. I’m using the word fear. If fear is weaponized in your organization or if fear is in the air in your organization, almost no one will be patient. Patience is in direct conflict with being scared. It’s hard to be patient when you’re scared, and so please try to eliminate as much fear as possible.
Measure long-term results
You know, I always hear people say, “Okay, Gary, I’m into patience. I’m building something meaningful and brand, like, how do I know it’s working?” And look, I think the answer is results. I think the way you measure it is measuring what you want to happen. So for example, if you’re building a brand for your nonprofit, your charity, right? And you start, and last year you got $88 in donations, and you’re doing all the work we’re talking about, I think it’s appropriate to want $4,000 in donations at the end of the year. And then you go into the next year and it’d be nice if it goes to 15,000, and then a hundred thousand. We’re not trying to avoid results, we just want to look at results more in a one-year window than a one-day window. And so the way you measure it is the results. Donations, sales. Real metrics, but again, in a one or 18-month or 24-month window.
And how do you know it’s working? There’s indicators. You know, if you’re going from $84 in donations to $14,000 in donations in a year, it’s happening every day. But you can’t be discouraged if you go through 90 days and it’s not going well because it’s the summer and the kind of people that donate for you are taking off the summer. There’s going to be steps backwards along the way, but I think the results should be part of it, just not too rigid. If you’re doing the right things, it’s pretty fun to lean into patience because eventually those petals will pop. The rose will bloom. And even if not, and I mean this, I want everyone to hear this, even if not, doing things the right way is the value in itself. And so if you lean into patience, you tend to find a lot more success. I’ve watched way more people fall short because of lack of patience than because of patience.