Patience while building

In business and in life, everyone needs some change and turnaround at some points. An entrepreneur starting out with an idea, after some periods of time will desire some specific changes in growth and expansion of the business.

Statistics showed that only one out of five businesses started at the same period will last the lapse of five years. And, shockingly most of the businesses that went out of operation are due to management issue, and deep in the management is usually impatience in implementing strategies and plans.

Business is a kind of building, and deserve some patience in the process.

A good example of impatience in building reflects on the “bike sharing” companies like Gokada and Opay.

In 2019, Opay introduced its bike sharing “Opay Ride” in Akure, Ondo State. How the platform works is that, you download their mobile application, set up your profile and start ordering for bike “okada” anywhere you are. The company’s idea is to replace the local riders and to introduce convenience for users.

This idea worked so well, a lot of riders signed up for the platform and also many others joined the platform. Their impatience came when they attracted users with fees that were bleeding them because they want to grow faster.

The attracted the riders with very nice salaries and customers with very cheap price. For example, on a distance of 1 km, a rider can have NGN 350 while the company will charge the customer for only NGN 67. Outrageous.

After some period of time, they were unable to bear the cost, and the whole system crumble. Same applicable to Gokada.

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Impatience for explosive growth can be deadly and very tricky. There are series of examples to learn from, which will inform our decision about impatience in building business and career.

A very good case I’ll like to share again is the story of Noah. His story has served as a great Lesson for entrepreneurs, and in life generally.

Noah was just an ordinary man showed a vision of what’s about to happen. Noah was an entrepreneur with a great solution that could save humanity from destruction.

Noah’s solution was an ark. All he’ll have to do was to build the ark up and invite people in to be marked saved. The interesting part is that Noah’s ark took him 100 years of consistent building and laboring.

What can we learn from Noah? Patience in building.

What can we learn from those failed businesses? Impatience in building.

To grow your business and career needs time, and right information. These processes can be tiring, laboring, and looks like time is far spent. However, it’s worth it.

Every business is a kind of building. Every career is a kind of building. These are not building of blocks, sands, water and concrete but of information. The right kind of information.

Just like Noah we have to endure the hardship of time and patience. Sometimes, we have to wait for years, and in two weeks, the business can sprout to great heights. Just like the Chinese bamboo tree.

The Chinese bamboo tree is the hardest nut in the world. Upon planting, this nut requires a daily watering and fertilization else it’ll die inside the ground. Meanwhile, it takes about four to five years to break forth out of the ground. Unlike maize that takes days to break out of the ground, the Chinese bamboo tree takes more than four years with constant watering and fertilization to breakout.

After the Chinese bamboo tree break out from the ground, it will only take two weeks to grow up to 90 feet (27.43 m). Impressive! Only a patience farmer can grow such hard nut.

READ: Start out as an Entrepreneur

What else can we learn from the Chinese bamboo tree? Patience.

Therefore, in your business and career endeavors, create plans, make strategies and patiently build up from the bottom upward. Do not do the mistake of comparing your results with someone else’s result.

Business like I mentioned earlier is a kind of building. No matter how good the builders are, they can not build any house of value in a day. A skyscraper for example is work of years. Several time will be spent on the planning and architecture. Time will be spent to source materials for the building process and everything will be measured and monitored. And all through this process, the builders must take one step after another at a time and build gradually with patience. 

Build with patience, learn in the process, and enjoy the fruit of your labor.

Writer: Oluwole Omojofodun