In this day and age, the last word that could ever realistically describe humans is patient. We want things fast, and often times don’t care about the cost associated with taking shortcuts for faster results. It’s how we’re wired because time defines human existence essentially. You have an undisclosed number of years to make the most of your time here, so you begin to spiral into this rat race of chronological maximization. However, success operates under a different spectrum of rules because nothing great happens overnight. Therefore, I wanted to take this week’s article to explain why patience is more than a key; it’s a cornerstone.

A successful task is one that is considered to be completed to the best of your abilities, with the proper time, planning and energy dedicated to it. There is no such thing as overnight success on a larger scale. However, when we see our entertainers, entrepreneurs, and other popular figures atop their platform, with their lives moving fast and in the public eye, we think that their success was some random instant miracle ordained by destiny. Many people then become discouraged because when they make an attempt, and it isn’t as fast as they would like for it to be, they lose interest while wasting time that they will never get back. I am no exception. As with many of my articles, let me share a personal reflection for it to be more relatable.

When I was starting my business, I had this grand idea that the second I went live with the company, it was going to be an overnight wonder, amassing a large, eager consumer base looking for different apparel that was designed by culture and made for them. It was going to be a success story that would make it to all of the major platforms in no time. I couldn’t have been more wrong. While the company got off to a much better start than most entrepreneurial ventures, it was nowhere near the delusions of grandeur that I’d been selling myself since I decided that it was what I was going to do to make a living for myself. I was all in for the first week. I was waking up and going to sleep eating, drinking and breathing the Cultural Nook, single-handedly manning most pre-production operations and making sure that everything I understood was doing what it needed to do.

After a lot of stress and not a lot of sleep, I was burned out, thinking that my fast work would produce fast results. I then stepped back and consulted with two of the closest people in my life in order to understand the real concept of what it took to run a company and stand strong when the going got tough. After being told exactly what I needed to hear, I restructured my approach, studied my craft a bit, and went back to the drawing board on how I was going to manage this. After I did everything I could do, I sat down and monitored instead of dictated. Everything happens in its season, and I was so busy focusing on one aspect of my life that I wasn’t paying attention to or celebrating the endless blessings that were happening every day before my very eyes.

One of the greatest quotes I had ever heard was that "no doesn’t mean never, it just means not right now."

What this means for you is that everything will happen when it’s supposed to, so don’t let time defeat you. Do what you can, and don’t stress over what you can’t. Patience is very much a key to success.