Be Patient, But Move Quickly

Successful people have a bias towards action. This is because action provides feedback - it gives you more information so that your next decision is an even better one.

But at the same time, successful people are also absurdly patient. They wait for years - decades even - to watch their planted seeds grow into trees. They always find a way to stay in the game and out-wait almost everyone until they win.

They’re patient, but they move quickly.

Small Actions Lead To Big Outcomes.

You need to have a sense of urgency in your life. After all, you (like the rest of us) are only getting older. Your brain is only getting duller as you age… so it’s best to push yourself now - while you have the energy to do it.

Small actions lead to big outcomes. The small things you do each day build on each other and compound over time. That’s why you should take action now - so that you can start compounding your skills, your creative project, or your business.

Derek Sivers writes in his book, How To Live, that great things are built from small actions:

“Many huge achievements are just the result of little actions done persistently over time. Cities began with just one building. Walmart was one little store. People with incredible skill just practiced every day. Put $25 a day in your investment account, and in thirty years, you’ll have over a million dollars. We overestimate what we can do in one year. We underestimate what we can do in ten years.”

I’ve written before that the key to success is consistency - a constant, slow march in the same direction. But this is hard to do because progress is usually invisible for long stretches of time. Life is complicated. Things always take longer than you expect them to, and you have to be patient as you wait.

Be patient, but move quickly.

Impatience With Actions, Patience With Results.

Naval Ravikant has a great phrase that encapsulates this mindset: “Impatience with actions, patience with results.” Here’s Naval talking about it on his How To Get Rich podcast:

“Anything you have to do, get it done. Why wait? You’re not getting any younger… When you do these things, do them as quickly as you can and with your full attention so you do them well. Then be patient with the results because you’re dealing with complex systems and a lot of people. It takes a long time for markets to adopt products. It takes time for people to get comfortable working with each other. It takes time for great products to emerge as you polish away. Impatience with actions, patience with results.”

One reason you need a lot of patience, as Naval says, is that if you’re working on anything collaborative, it takes time to build trust between people. That’s because relationships compound over time. If you work with the same people for decades, you can move a lot faster and do bigger projects because you all trust each other. That lowers the amount of friction to get things done.

The other reason you need patience is that it takes a lot of iteration to find exactly what works. Your first business or project will probably fail - but that doesn’t mean you can’t iterate your way to something that does work. You just have to stick with it.

Don’t Keep Track Of Time.

You need to be prepared to spend the next 20 years in pursuit of what you want. Whether it’s gaining financial freedom, building a business, becoming an actor or writer - whatever - you can’t pretend you can accomplish everything you want in a month.

But, you also can’t keep track of time. Because if you do, you’ll eventually quit. It just takes too long to constantly be thinking about how long it’s going to take!

Here’s Naval warning us about this in The Almanack of Naval Ravikant:

“It takes time… there is an indeterminate amount of time you have to put in. If you’re counting, you’ll run out of patience before success actually arrives. Everybody wants to get rich immediately, but the world is an efficient place; immediate doesn’t work. You do have to put in the time. You do have to put in the hours… You have to enjoy it and keep doing it, keep doing it, and keep doing it. Don’t keep track, and don’t keep count because if you do, you will run out of time.”

This is why it IS important to pursue something you like doing. If you don’t like it, you won’t stick with it for long enough to enjoy the non-linear success that can eventually strike.

You Only Have To Hit Once.

Yes, success is going to take a long time. BUT, you only have to do it once. You only have to be right once. You only have to get rich once.

And that’s why the game is so much fun to play. Here’s Naval again from How To Get Rich:

“One thing that’s important in entrepreneurship: You just have to be right once. You get many, many shots on goal. You can take a shot on goal every three to five years, maybe every 10 at the slowest. Or once every year at the fastest, depending on how you’re iterating with startups. But you only have to be right once.”

That’s why the game you’re playing needs to be worth the payout. You don’t want to win a stupid prize if you win. It’s better to fail at the things that could change your life than succeed at stuff where the prize is too small to matter.

Find games where the rewards are massive, and then play iterated games until you win.

Start now.

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SOURCES

Derek Sivers. How to Live. Hit Media. Kindle Edition.

Jorgenson, Eric. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness. Magrathea Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Naval Ravikant - How To Get Rich: Every Episode