Patience + Time = Success

Welcome to the 139^th edition of “In Touch”. As always, I would love to continue the conversation so please hit reply and let me know what you think.

Story of the Week: “Patience + Time = Success”

Two years ago, I came close to working with one of the world’s best-known companies. Close enough to see it forming, not close enough for it to happen. A senior leader had reached out from her base in New York. She was looking for someone to come over and train her team. We subsequently had several conversations, which made me optimistic that we would reach an agreement to work together. In the end, however, the company’s training budget did not align with my proposed fee and nothing became of the idea.

I nonetheless kept in touch with her. Every few months, I would send a short note – sometimes sharing an article I thought she would find useful, sometimes simply checking in to see how she was doing. She had made a very positive impression on me and, in business as in life, the best relationships are rarely built overnight.

Recently, she reached out to me again and, this time, the conversation was very different. Her company is planning a major international event and, she told me, she wanted someone to train the team in person in one country and, at the same time, connect with over 250 other people around the globe. Two years after our first contact, she had again thought of me.

I have always believed that relationships are like seeds. You do not plant one and stand over it, demanding that it grow according to your timetable. You water it, you tend to it, you give it your attention and your patience... and if the conditions are right, it may grow into something far greater than you ever imagined.

Leo Tolstoy once wrote that the two most powerful warriors are patience and time. It’s hard to argue with that.

Thanks to that seed of a relationship which, after some lasting and patient cultivation, has now begun to bloom, the door that didn’t open to a distant city two years ago has just become a gateway to the world.

Words of Wisdom

“A man who plants a tree, knowing he will never sit in its shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life.” Rabindranath Tagore

A Question to Ponder, dear friend.

Think of a relationship you stopped investing in, simply because the timing was not right. Looking back... was timing really the problem or was it more about patience?