Although we live in a largely instant gratification world with things like UberEats and Spotify, there are still many things that take time. This disparity drives some people crazy, but there is very little if anything that can be done about it. The only thing you can do is to be consistent and keep working at what you are desiring. Learn to be patient.
I have changed sales jobs a bunch of times in my thirties and early forties, as I tried to conquer a new industry multiple times. If there is one thing I hate, it is not being good at my job. I want to be competent if not excellent, but this takes time. Looking stupid or uninformed is a personal struggle of mine, and I spent a lot of time living “in the gray”. Leaving a job shortly after just finally getting my feet under me was a pattern that I lived for over a decade, and it took its toll on me. I longed to be knowledgeable and skilled, the person people sought out for answers. This level of proficiency takes time, as most good things do.
Now in my current role, I have been the VP of Sales for over a decade and I know our service inside and out. I confidently walk into boardrooms and present to Fortune 100 companies on the reg, and don’t even flinch when doing so. I have done it for The Hartford, UPS, Delta Airlines and more. I love it; it is a challenge but one that I am more than qualified and prepared for. This is the only job I have ever felt this way about; I wanted to be at this level for all of the others, but I never got there. I left before I had logged enough hours to hit this upper echelon. Good things take time…
In many cases, bad things happen quickly. Take COVID for example, within a month the world went from the “normal” level of functionality to almost complete lockdown. We pivoted, hard, and found a new way to exist for a while. Working from home became the norm, and many of us thrived and benefitted from this. But it took a while to get into this new groove and make it a benefit to our overall lives. The “bad stuff” happened quickly, the good stuff took a while to materialize. The stock market crashes, but it does not do the reverse. You have to invest now and sit and wait. You have to ride the waves and log the time to get the payoff in the end. If you jump ship too soon, you will likely be paying the price for doing so.
Life has lots of examples of this. If you are trying to build a business, it could take years before you really see anything resembling success. Depending on the size of the business, it could be becoming busy enough to hire your first employee. If you are a start up with VC money behind you, it could be hitting the Year Two projections that you you sold the investors on. For me in my current VP job, it took about six years before we landed a marquee insurance company as a referral partner. As a racquetball player it took me three years at the top level to really feel like I belonged there. Good things take time…
As the cliche thought of giving the 20 year old version of yourself so advice goes, I would stress to that version of me one thing: patience. Well, I would also tell him to bet on the New England Patriots at the beginning of several seasons, but that is another story. Patience is a must in life, as good things take time. As Warren Buffett is credited for saying:
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it.
If you think of that, you’ll do things differently.”
Good things take time. We all want to world to recognize us, or our product or service as the best thing out there, but it takes a really long time to make that happen. You are going to have to earn it, and because you are a flawed human being just like everyone else, you’re going to take two steps forward and occasionally a step backward. It’s just how it is. You don’t turn Pro in your first year playing a sport and you don’t take over a market in the first year either. You need time, reps and a little luck to really move the needle. If it was easy, everyone would be world class, and clearly that is not the case. Everything takes work to be good at. I estimate that I hit one million forehands and one million backhands during the course of my time as a competitive racquetball player, and that is just on the practice court. That doesn’t count the multitude of tournaments and exhibition matches I played. And this didn’t make me number one in the world, because other guys did more and did it better.
Time isn’t enough, but you have no choice but to patiently put the time in, work to improve and refine, and slowly inch your way forward. The one guarantee there is: quitting means you have no shot at success. By continuing on, working diligently over time, you may get where you want to go. That’s as good as it gets. No promises, no guarantees.
Get to work…and never stop.
I wish you luck in your endeavors.
by Darrin Schenck
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by Darrin Schenck
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Although we live in a largely instant gratification world with things like UberEats and Spotify, there are still many things that take time. This disparity drives some people crazy, but there is very little if anything that can be done about it. The only thing you can do is to be consistent and keep working at what you are desiring. Learn to be patient.
I have changed sales jobs a bunch of times in my thirties and early forties, as I tried to conquer a new industry multiple times. If there is one thing I hate, it is not being good at my job. I want to be competent if not excellent, but this takes time. Looking stupid or uninformed is a personal struggle of mine, and I spent a lot of time living “in the gray”. Leaving a job shortly after just finally getting my feet under me was a pattern that I lived for over a decade, and it took its toll on me. I longed to be knowledgeable and skilled, the person people sought out for answers. This level of proficiency takes time, as most good things do.
Now in my current role, I have been the VP of Sales for over a decade and I know our service inside and out. I confidently walk into boardrooms and present to Fortune 100 companies on the reg, and don’t even flinch when doing so. I have done it for The Hartford, UPS, Delta Airlines and more. I love it; it is a challenge but one that I am more than qualified and prepared for. This is the only job I have ever felt this way about; I wanted to be at this level for all of the others, but I never got there. I left before I had logged enough hours to hit this upper echelon. Good things take time…
In many cases, bad things happen quickly. Take COVID for example, within a month the world went from the “normal” level of functionality to almost complete lockdown. We pivoted, hard, and found a new way to exist for a while. Working from home became the norm, and many of us thrived and benefitted from this. But it took a while to get into this new groove and make it a benefit to our overall lives. The “bad stuff” happened quickly, the good stuff took a while to materialize. The stock market crashes, but it does not do the reverse. You have to invest now and sit and wait. You have to ride the waves and log the time to get the payoff in the end. If you jump ship too soon, you will likely be paying the price for doing so.
Life has lots of examples of this. If you are trying to build a business, it could take years before you really see anything resembling success. Depending on the size of the business, it could be becoming busy enough to hire your first employee. If you are a start up with VC money behind you, it could be hitting the Year Two projections that you you sold the investors on. For me in my current VP job, it took about six years before we landed a marquee insurance company as a referral partner. As a racquetball player it took me three years at the top level to really feel like I belonged there. Good things take time…
As the cliche thought of giving the 20 year old version of yourself so advice goes, I would stress to that version of me one thing: patience. Well, I would also tell him to bet on the New England Patriots at the beginning of several seasons, but that is another story. Patience is a must in life, as good things take time. As Warren Buffett is credited for saying:
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it.
If you think of that, you’ll do things differently.”
Good things take time. We all want to world to recognize us, or our product or service as the best thing out there, but it takes a really long time to make that happen. You are going to have to earn it, and because you are a flawed human being just like everyone else, you’re going to take two steps forward and occasionally a step backward. It’s just how it is. You don’t turn Pro in your first year playing a sport and you don’t take over a market in the first year either. You need time, reps and a little luck to really move the needle. If it was easy, everyone would be world class, and clearly that is not the case. Everything takes work to be good at. I estimate that I hit one million forehands and one million backhands during the course of my time as a competitive racquetball player, and that is just on the practice court. That doesn’t count the multitude of tournaments and exhibition matches I played. And this didn’t make me number one in the world, because other guys did more and did it better.
Time isn’t enough, but you have no choice but to patiently put the time in, work to improve and refine, and slowly inch your way forward. The one guarantee there is: quitting means you have no shot at success. By continuing on, working diligently over time, you may get where you want to go. That’s as good as it gets. No promises, no guarantees.
Get to work…and never stop.
I wish you luck in your endeavors.
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