I am writing this on 10-10-10. I once read that the number ten (10) means being “One with God” in Egyptian Numerology. If that is true, I am getting a triple dose today. The Godly virtue of Patience has been a common theme for me recently. I have been trying to re-engineering and rebrand my firm away from an emphasis on working with land development teams and more toward offering services that translate to and are helpful to a wider variety of industries.
Rebranding and Re-engineering requires patience. I was once told that one of my great grandmothers was a slave named Patience. I sometimes think of what she could have looked like and how she behaved. I think she was tough, strong, reserved, and quiet. Slaves were often named for a virtue their parents had or wanted them to have. Being patient is to bear misfortune and pain without complaint or irritation. Patient people have quiet, even tempered perserverance.
I have a healthy dose of patience in my fabric. Others have told me so. I also see it in myself. But, I have learned that the real challenge is time management and working with others that may not be so patience.
Here’s a case in point. You may need to hire help with rolling out sales campaigns and prospecting. If you cannot afford to hire, you solicit help with the terms and conditions (TCs) that when you get paid, they get paid for helping you. If “you” have patience, you can live with these TCs. But, if they cannot patiently await compensation, you are in trouble. Here’s a solution: hire folks that have other sources of income or compensation. For example, ideal assistance can come from retirees; married stay at home moms; and students that can earn course credit for helping you.
I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I think I inherited it. Although my parents and family members never labeled themselves “entrepreneurs”, we always found innovative ways to make ends meet to survive. We sold chicken plates, sold items at flea markets, home renovations, and home cleaning. When we would hit a stumbling block, the perspective that it was minor and needed a solution. So, if you cannot afford to hire, do not give up. Just do it. Find an innovative way to just do it.
Although it takes patience to re-engineer and rebrand your firm, it also takes balance. I am learning that you cannot attribute a lengthy amount of time to “just do it” to your having the Godly virtue of patience. You could easily take your sweet time and tell others that it is alright to saunter because you have patience. Well, is your patience paying the bills? Will your patience save your company?
The balancing act is balancing having the patience to see things through with having a clear strategic plan with set goals and deadlines to have things completed. Time management is a key skill. What works for me is calendaring everything. If I want to hire help, advertising and outreach has to be put on the calendar. Now, the pressure is on. The start and end dates are set. I can tell myself that I have the patience to await responses, but I have to balance that with the reality that the responses need to come in and be acted on by a certain deadline. I put myself under a little pressure. It will not break me. If I do not get the responses I need, I find a solution. I cast a bigger fish net.
Just do it. Do it with style, class, and patience. But, do not use that virtue as an excuse to watch your vision and dreams disintegrate before your eyes. There is an old saying that if you do the same thing with the same bad results, you are insane. Well, you may call it having patience. Others see it as a mental disorder. To truly persevere and be diligent, you have to achieve real change and real results.
Clovia founded Lemongrass Consulting in 2005 with 25 years of government work experience and serves as a procurement counselor in the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC). Lemongrass Consulting provides strategic planning solutions including government contracting strategic marketing plans. Visit us at: http://www.lemongrassplanning.com – Follow Clovia on Twitter @lemongrassplans and LIKE Lemongrass on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/6cuu28o
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