I’ve spoken a lot about various personality traits over the course of my time writing this blog. It takes a certain kind of person to cast off the shackles of the 9-5 world and strike out on their own on the path to PIE. You need to be motivated. Confident. Professional. Intelligent. Creative. But one specific personality trait I haven’t really touched on, and will today, is patience. And in the realm of business, patience is definitely a virtue.
You see, you can’t just start up a business and expect to be sleeping on a mattress stuffed with $100 bills overnight. Except in the odd very, very rare exception, it just doesn’t work like that (and if the luck of the draw and that does actually happen, congratulations!). But for the rest of us (the majority of us, in point of fact), we have to play the long game.
We all have big hopes and dreams. Big aspirations. But it takes time to get there, and you can’t just start off big, or you’re all but doomed to failure. As a character in the recent film Prometheus stated, “Big things have small beginnings.” This is great advice. Start small, and work your way up. Slowly. If you’ve been following this blog, you should know a thing or two about scalability. Don’t try and rush to the finish line, or you could very well fall.
I’m sure you’re all familiar with the old fable about the tortoise and the hare, right? Well the moral of that story (slow and steady wins the race) absolutely applies to your business. That tortoise would have made a killing with a start-up. He exercised patience and discipline, and won. That’s a great example for all of you to follow.
I have done my best over the course of this blog to nurture the drive to succeed that exists within all of you, my dear readers. But exercise restraint. Don’t let your drive to succeed push you too far, too soon. Be patient. Be like the tortoise. Be well on your way to maximum Personal Independent Earnings.
