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The Art of Patience: Why Rushing is Ruining Your Business (And Your Life)
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Patience died somewhere between dial-up internet and same-day delivery.
I was sitting in a Melbourne café last week, watching a bloke lose his absolute mind because his flat white took four minutes instead of three. Four bloody minutes. This is a guy who probably spends forty minutes choosing what to watch on Netflix, but heaven forbid his coffee takes an extra sixty seconds.
That's when it hit me like a brick to the head – we've forgotten how to wait. And it's killing our businesses, our relationships, and frankly, our sanity.
The Instant Everything Problem
Here's what nobody wants to admit: patience isn't just some fluffy virtue your grandmother preached about whilst knitting scarves. It's a competitive advantage. A superpower, if you will.
In my 18 years running workshops for everyone from mining executives to retail managers across Australia, I've seen this pattern play out thousands of times. The impatient leaders make terrible decisions. The impatient salespeople lose deals. The impatient managers burn through staff faster than a bushfire through dry grass.
Yet somehow, we've convinced ourselves that moving fast equals being productive. Wrong.
Why Patience Actually Makes You Money
Let me tell you about Sarah from Brisbane – fictional name, very real situation. She ran a small accounting firm and prided herself on being "responsive." Emails answered within minutes. Client calls returned immediately. Proposals turned around same-day.
Sounds impressive, right?
Wrong again. Her hasty responses were riddled with errors. Her quick proposals underpriced jobs by 30%. Her instant availability trained clients to expect miracles, creating a cycle of unrealistic demands that eventually burned out her entire team.
When Sarah learned to build in deliberate delays – 24 hours for email responses, 48 hours for proposals, scheduled call-back times – something magical happened. Her clients respected her more. Her proposals were more accurate and profitable. Her team stopped looking like they'd been through a meat grinder.
The Neuroscience Bit (Bear With Me)
Research from Melbourne University shows that when we're constantly rushing, our brains literally shrink the prefrontal cortex – the bit responsible for decision-making and impulse control. It's like going to the gym and only exercising your left pinky toe whilst ignoring everything else.
Patient people, on the other hand, show increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex. That's the part that helps you see the bigger picture, consider multiple options, and make better choices. Basically, patience makes you smarter.
Three Things I Got Wrong About Patience
First, I used to think patience meant being passive. Sitting around waiting for things to happen. Complete rubbish. True patience is active – it's choosing to wait for the right moment while preparing for it.
Second, I thought patient people were just naturally calm. Nope. Patience is a skill you develop through practice, like learning to drive or perfecting your golf swing. Some days you're better at it than others.
Third, I believed patience was weakness. In our hyperconnected, always-on business culture, taking time to think was seen as indecision. Reality check: some of the most successful business leaders I know are incredibly patient strategists who move deliberately rather than frantically.
The best negotiators understand this. They'll sit in uncomfortable silence while the other party fills the void with concessions. They know that dealing with difficult behaviours requires patience above all else.
The McDonald's Method
Here's a practical technique I teach in my workshops: the McDonald's Method. Not because it has anything to do with burgers, but because of their "speedy service" signs from the 1950s.
Before McDonald's revolutionised fast food, they spent years perfecting their systems. Every movement was planned, every process refined. They weren't rushing – they were being efficiently patient.
Apply this to your business decisions:
Step 1: When faced with a urgent decision, force yourself to wait 10 minutes. Set a timer.
Step 2: During those 10 minutes, write down three possible outcomes of acting immediately versus waiting longer.
Step 3: Ask yourself: "What's the worst thing that happens if I wait another hour? Another day?"
You'll be shocked how often the "urgent" decision becomes obviously non-urgent when you give it space to breathe.
The Goldfish Attention Span Myth
Everyone bangs on about how our attention spans are shorter than goldfish these days. Eight seconds versus nine seconds, they say. First off, that's based on a Microsoft study that's been completely debunked. Second, goldfish can actually remember things for months, so the whole comparison is nonsense anyway.
But here's what's true: we've trained ourselves to expect instant gratification. Your customers want everything now. Your boss wants results yesterday. Your team wants answers before you've finished asking the question.
The companies that thrive are the ones that push back against this madness. Apple doesn't release products the moment they're functional – they wait until they're exceptional. Good wine isn't rushed. Quality takes time.
When Patience Goes Too Far
Let me be clear – I'm not advocating for analysis paralysis. There's a difference between being patient and being indecisive. Patient people gather information, consider options, then act decisively. Indecisive people gather information forever and never act at all.
I learned this the hard way when I spent six months "researching" whether to expand my training business to Adelaide. Six months! By the time I finally made the decision, two competitors had already set up shop there. Sometimes the patient approach means making quick decisions based on available information, then patiently executing the plan.
The sweet spot is what I call "impatient patience" – urgent about the goal, patient about the process.
Building Your Patience Muscle
Like any skill, patience improves with practice. Start small. When you're in a queue, resist the urge to check your phone. Just wait. Notice how antsy you feel, then breathe through it.
In meetings, count to three before responding to questions. It feels like an eternity at first, but that pause often leads to better answers.
Set arbitrary waiting periods for non-critical decisions. Buying office furniture? Sleep on it. Hiring someone? Take an extra day to check references properly.
One Melbourne-based CEO I know institutes "No Decision Fridays" where his team can discuss anything but can't make final choices until Monday. Sounds mad, but their decision quality improved dramatically.
The Patience Paradox
Here's the weird thing about patience: the more you practice it, the faster things actually move. When you stop rushing, you make fewer mistakes. Fewer mistakes mean less time fixing problems. Less time fixing problems means more time for strategic thinking.
It's like that old saying about taking time to sharpen your axe. You could hack away at a tree all day with a blunt blade, or spend ten minutes sharpening and cut it down in half the time.
The most successful people I know – from mining executives to retail managers to tech entrepreneurs – share this trait. They're comfortable with strategic waiting. They understand that sometimes the best action is no action, at least temporarily.
Making Patience Profitable
Want practical applications? Here are three I use with clients regularly:
The 24-Hour Email Rule: For any email that makes you emotional, wait 24 hours before responding. I've seen this single rule save careers, relationships, and million-dollar deals.
The Three-Quote Minimum: Never make a purchasing decision based on one quote, regardless of how urgent it seems. Always get three. The time "wasted" gathering additional quotes almost always saves money and improves outcomes.
The Weekly Review Ritual: Every Friday, review the week's rushed decisions versus considered ones. Track which approach led to better outcomes. You'll quickly see the pattern.
The Final Word
Patience isn't about being slow. It's about being intentional. In a world obsessed with speed, the patient person has a massive advantage.
Your competitors are rushing into bad decisions while you're thoughtfully planning good ones. They're burning out their teams while you're building sustainable systems. They're reacting to every market hiccup while you're focused on long-term strategy.
Some days I still catch myself getting impatient. Usually when I'm dealing with time management challenges or trying to juggle too many priorities at once. The difference is, now I recognise it happening and can course-correct.
The art of patience isn't about waiting for the perfect moment – perfect moments don't exist. It's about creating the space to make thoughtful choices instead of reactive ones.
And in business, thoughtful choices compound into competitive advantages that last decades.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to practice what I preach and take my time finishing this coffee instead of rushing off to the next urgent thing that probably isn't actually urgent at all.