Patience makes time your greatest asset. It will work for you, not against you.
Saw this on Twitter: The greatest threat to results is impatience. If you let it, a tiny daily advantage will compound into a massive generational one. A lack of patience changes the outcome.
Who am I around? What are they doing to me? Is that okay?
Friends are such a major influence on your life and what happens to you.
You are the sum of your five closest friends.
I was a young leader. I was the president of my high school and college. I was an officer in the Air Force and put in charge of 23 people… at only 22 years old. I made a lot of mistakes, and if I could go back and give some advice to my younger self, this is what I would say:
A title is not authority. Just because you are “in charge” doesn’t mean you are actually in charge. If you want to lead, you have to earn credibility over time, especially if you’re a young leader. How do you earn credibility and followers?
When you choose to start something, you have to train yourself to also finishing it. It is one choice, not two. You chose to start this, so you also chose to finish it.
This was a hard lesson for me to learn and profoundly important in pretty much every aspect of my life. My friends used to joke that I was a “parallel” entrepreneur because I started two or three companies at the same time. I would take on any project without giving much thought to how I would finish it, or how I might be overwhelmed in the pursuit of too many goals. I ended up scattered and unfocused, just trying to keep up with the demands that I signed up for. It was an unsatisfactory life and taught me a crucial lesson. If I didn’t escape this trap, it would have doomed me to a mediocre life.
“Understand there is a price to be paid for achieving anything of significance. You must be willing to pay the price.” – John Wooden
If you want something big, you have to be willing to pay the price. That means you have to be willing to work for it and make the sacrifices. If you want to run a marathon in three hours, you have to pay the price and put in the grueling months of training and suffering.
Ambition and achievement requires sacrifice and trade offs. I always wanted to accomplish so I didn’t spend much time with friends. My social life suffered. Many people work so hard they lose sight of their close friends and family and they become more and more distant over time. Eventually, they completely lose touch. It doesn’t have to be this extreme but it gives you a sense of the sacrifice required – the price you have to pay.
In order to be willing to pay the price, you have to understand deeply what you were trying to accomplish. He won’t be willing to stay up late and work harder than anybody else if you don’t have a clear picture of what the final outcome of all the hard work will be. Make sure you have a clear vision for what you want and why you were sacrificing so you will be willing to pay the price.
I didn’t realize this when I was growing up, but my dad was also an entrepreneur. He ran a small company that he and his business partner built over 18 years. My dad had a plaque on his desk that said, “LEAD FOLLOW OR GET OUT OF THE WAY”.
Perhaps I absorbed this through osmosis as I grew up, but I am a get s#it done (GSD) kind of guy. I have a strong drive to be productive and I am happiest when I feel that I am accomplishing something or working my way towards goals. To GSD on a team, you MUST lead follow or get out of the way.
LEAD: If no one is taking charge and something needs to happen, you have to step up and take the lead. You will find yourself more often than not in the leadership role because most people do not have a natural tendency to lead.
FOLLOW: If someone is taking charge and you believe them to be capable and competent, follow. Ask how you can help. Become that person’s enabler and help them lead even better by being the best follower you can be.
GET OUT OF THE WAY: No matter what happens, nothing will slow the team or company down faster than someone who gets in the way. People who get in the way are generally unhelpful or aren’t willing to do the work. They don’t follow up up tasks that are assigned to them. They complain about the direction the team is headed or problems that are being encountered along the way. They drag teams down, and people like this can singlehandedly make a world-class team mediocre. If you have someone on your team who won’t get out of the way, you need to address it and get them onboard or get them off the team.
Two twin boys were raised by an alcoholic father. One grew up to be an alcoholic and when asked what happened he said, “I watched my father.” The other grew up never having had a drink in his life. When he was asked what happened he said, “I watched my father.” Twins with the same environment came to completely opposite perspectives. They chose to have different perspectives.
You have the ultimate choice of how you perceive everything in your life. You can choose to be a victim. Or you can choose to make the setback your opportunity for greatness. It’s all about perspective.