Impatience. Is It Killing Your Startup…and More?

Impatience, Anxiety, Fear, and other negative emotions are powerful levers that often drive us to “push for closure” on a problem before a viable solution is realistic. That’s a problem. Consider the words of Lao Tzu…
Rushing into action, you fail. Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion, you ruin what was almost ripe.
~Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching #64
This forcing of the issue typically results in a whole host of negative consequences: we fall short of our goals, perhaps make the problem worse than what it already was, and sadly rob ourselves of a chance to live the best life possible.
Let’s consider some examples
You want to get rich but instead of seeking the advice of trusted counselors and investing your money wisely, you decide to speculate on some ‘hot stocks’ a buddy told you about, dumping more than 50% of your savings into the play — only to see the stock flame out and take your nest egg with it.
You want to get married and have kids, but rather than take the time to get to know yourself first, or date a variety of people to learn what you like/don’t like, you rush into a relationship with someone you met online (“because he’s just so dreamy”), get married in a few months, and get pregnant shortly thereafter — only to learn that you’re actually not that compatible, you fight all the time, and you can’t wait to file for divorce.
A bunch of your friends at work invite you to join them for a mud race next month. Sounds fun, right? Sure you know you’re not in shape now, but since one of your goals is to take better care of yourself, you agree to join them. Unfortunately you don’t take the time to actually train for the event and instead just decide to wing it (“after all, how hard can it be?”). Everything is going great until, BOOM — you end up tearing your ACL while jumping down from one of the high walls and get laid up for 6 months, during which you balloon into a fat blob who spirals further into depression.
You want to launch secure more investors for your startup, but rather than take the time to get to know what your customers really want from your product, you push it out to market before it’s ready, forget everything you learned in business school about marketing, and focus instead on telling a good story to Silicon Valley. The result: you burn through all your cash, miss your sales numbers, and watch as new competition kicks your butt while your once-promising product flounders in the mists of the forgotten. Oh, and your company goes to the brink of failure. Oops.

It doesn’t have to be this way.
If you’ve take the time to understand your goals and you build solid plans for achieving them, then it’s really just a matter of executing on those plans and letting life unfold in due course.
Consistent Action + Time = Results.
You just need to trust in the process, be patient, keep moving forward, and know with confidence that things WILL go your way… when the seeds you planted are ripe for harvesting.
This is key wisdom so humor me as I try to drive it home with you: just like with any seeds, you can’t expect to them to grow without a little TLC from you…and time.
Turning back to our examples…
If you want to build your wealth, educate yourself on the topic, seek advice from trusted advisors, and invest your money in things YOU actually use. After years of trying to do things by myself, and following hot tips (which never worked!), I changed my approach and began investing in things I actually used — that’s what led me to invest in Google at $85/share, Amazon at $300ish, and Facebook under $30. Don’t get me wrong, I still make mistakes, but a lot less often. I also work with advisors to guide me now too. The result: I’m on the path to financial freedom.
If you want to get married and have kids, take your time getting to know your potential spouse first. What’s the big rush? Date for a few years and really make sure. Get to know each other at every level — you’ll be glad you did. As for the kids, enjoy married life for awhile, build up your finances, get your foundation in place, and then have the kids. The result: you’ll all be better off for having waited, because you’ll have had your ‘go-out’ fun, you’ll be wiser, you’ll be in a better position financially to provide for them, and you’ll have built up a great bank of wisdom that you can share with your kids (setting them up for success in life too!).
So you’re gonna run that mud race? Please do a bit of research first.