Everyone will tell you to do what you love. To not settle in your career, never settle in your love life.

Not many people will tell you about patience.

It’s probably the secret to winning anything.

Everyone is concerned with the beginning. The launch day of their product or website. Of the first date. Your first day of working out and dieting. They have an image of the final outcome.

Making money. A happy life. A lean, strong body.

But the middle is the real test.

It’s the grind. It’s boring. It’s often depressing.

It’s the empty road on a long road trip where you’re running low on gas and food, and it seems like there’s nothing worthwhile in sight.

Most people give up too soon. You go on a couple bad dates and believe you are cursed and destined to be alone forever. So you promise yourself to stop dating for a few months.

Your sales slump after your first week launch. You were exciting news! But now the presses and blogs need something fresh, and you’re already 7 days too old.

And this is where patience comes in. If you can fight that voice in your head that is trying to convince you you’ve failed, and keep working on refining your methods to reach your goal, you’ve already beat 100% of the competition. The competition being the negative version of yourself. 

In my short professional career, I have started about 6 companies. The more recent ones I invested significantly in. And of those, I quit most, if not all too early.

I could regret all the money that was wasted, but money can always be made back. The lesson was worth the thousands I’ve “lost”. Patience is something I finally have a grasp of, which is difficult in the internet age of I want it now. And especially harder when you’re not getting any younger.

Rarely is anything great and successful built overnight. It’s often accomplished by continuing to work when everyone else is giving up.