For many entrepreneurs, we may encounter that feeling of impatience, fear, and uncertainty of whether or not everything will work out. Especially if you’re just starting out, it’s easy to doubt yourself on whether or not you’re on the right path. As humans we’re programmed to think short term. We ask “where’s my reward for all the work I’ve put in?” And it’s easy to get irritated and forget that good things take time.
When we’re patient, the journey is SO much easier. In this post, I want to talk about patience and long term thinking to help us stay consistent and persistent with building our business.
Good Things Take Time
I have to admit, I’m guilty of impatience. Sometimes I fall into the trap of concentrating on “gap focus” AKA the difference between my ideal self and my current self. The good part is this gap focus creates motivation, but the bad part is it can result in not feeling satisfied or good enough and forgetting to appreciate my accomplishments. I can accomplish different feats or achieve different milestones, but still forget to realize I’ve done a lot because I’m so focused on the disparity between future me vs. current me.
Now that I’ve been plugging away at the entrepreneurial route for several years, I understand that everything good takes time. I think about my business in 5 year to 10 year increments, and I always remind myself why I love doing this to enjoy the process.
So think in longer timeframes. If your business isn’t where you want to be right now it’s okay. If those metrics aren’t looking the way you want them to, realize most of them are VANITY metrics and do not necessarily correlate with what actually matters.
Those views? Follower counts? I think these types of metrics pale in comparison to real engagement and customers who come back. Having a few super fans trumps having a few thousand views without anyone actually caring about your content or product.
Sometimes people come up to me for help and I’ll take a look at their strategy and progress. There are times when I can drop knowledge if they’re missing something, but there are also times where I find all they need is patience. I look at their strategy, and every component of their business has the right actions in place – they just need to wait for the results.
If you’re constantly experimenting, improving, and doing the research, chances are you’re doing it right and you’re not missing some “secret” piece of information. You just have to trust the process. Entrepreneurship is usually not one of those things where if you do X you’ll get Y right away. In fact it usually has a bunch of unexpected ups and downs:
If you change your framework to think in 5-10 year increments versus 7 day increments, you’ll have such an easier journey and you’re less likely to give up. There are times where you have to listen to your customer base and see if you need to pivot – if you’ve done some market research and there is no need for what you’re doing then you may need to rethink your business concept. But if you’re passionate about your work, and you have a couple of super fans who LOVE what you’re doing – that may be enough proof that you’re on the right track.
It’s so easy to forget the macro picture of things. Just keep hustling, and be patient – all good things take time! 🙂
