Patience, Patience
The Oxford Dictionary defines patience as: ‘the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.’ Patience can be an area of great conflict for the entrepreneur.
In describing themselves, many entrepreneurs will talk about their restlessness, preference for constant change, hatred of boredom and routine. All of this forward momentum can prevent the entrepreneur from getting trapped in an unprofitable idea. Certain industries require a nimble hand and on-the-fly planning. How to get that trendy app out before the fad dies or competitors pounce? Other industries – life sciences, for instance – require years of painstaking research and great outlays of cash, all towards an uncertain end. The result could be a world-changing innovation or an expensive dead-end.
It is helpful for entrepreneurs to have a sense of the ways in which they may be more or less patient. How can you tweak your venture and staffing to fit your deep-rooted patience levels?
The Checklist
Below, you’ll find 4 different areas in which entrepreneurs can find their patience tested. Within each category, mark off the items that Try Your Last Nerve. These are times when you Do. Not. Feel. Patient.
THIS TRIES MY LAST NERVE……
A. Focused Tasks
1. doing finely detailed work.
2. taking the time to check and recheck my work to make sure there are no subtle mistakes.
3. combing through work to make sure we are delivering exactly what we promised.
4. picking through other people’s work to make sure it is accurate.
5. coordinating complex workflow and process details.
6. analyzing complex data for subtle patterns and trends.
•••
B. People
7. waiting for others to finish their end of the work, so that we can move onto the next phase.
8. working on a team with people whose work habits are markedly different than mine.
9. taking time out to help co-workers deal with minor concerns.
10. explaining concepts multiple times to the same audience.
11. learning the different tastes and quirks of the people with whom I work.
12. doing projects that require a lot of teamwork.
•••
C. Timeframe
13. devoting much time to a project that will take months before it is ready to be unveiled.
14. planning out years in advance.
15. gathering in-depth information and data for complex analysis before making big decisions.
16. testing and retesting concepts until we’ve got things just right.
17. inching forward with incremental progress on a long-shot business idea.
18. starting another uncertain, multi-year project after the first one didn’t pan out.
•••
D. Bureaucratic Hassles
19. working on a project that requires checking in regularly with a committee who ensure that I am following the appropriate rules.
20. filling out detailed government or industry paperwork.
21. waiting chunks of time for government or industry approval.
22. meeting many times with governing bodies to further explain or justify our venture.
23. completing extensive applications for possible grants.
24. looking through an extensive directory of relevant officials, trying to figure out whom I should approach about our venture at which point.
Scoring
i. How many items tried your patience in each of the areas?
A. Focused Tasks /6
B. People /6
C. Timeframe /6
D. Bureaucratic Hassles /6
E. Overall Patience Score /24
ii. What is your Patience picture? What are the implications of your Patience Scores for your entrepreneurial endeavours? How might you tweak your entrepreneurial plans and staffing based on this?