Patience On the Road to Success

We live in strange times. We want to achieve everything quickly and we lack patience. As a result, we sometimes give up too early on things that could be successful.

Life moves very fast. Compared to 20 or 30 years ago, a lot has changed. Today, we lack patience for everything. We don’t feel like reading books, for example. What’s more, we don’t even like reading long newspaper articles. The problem is not that we are not interested in them, but that we cannot concentrate on some things for a longer period of time. Our attention is constantly being distracted.

Let’s think about how long we can work continuously on the computer. Probably not that long, because even if we focus on one topic, new things will come up in the meantime. For example, in my job, I am constantly receiving emails, customers call me, and sometimes questions arise. The result is that even if I wanted to, I can’t concentrate on one thing for long.

And it’s the same in normal life. Many things distract us. And we have become so used to it that we often don’t even notice it.

Patience is essential to be successful

Sometimes, however, patience is essential if we want to be successful. This is the case, for example, in business or investing.

When it comes to investing, the problem is that many people have abandoned long-term investing in favor of much faster trading (e.g. in currencies). This is because playing in this way gives us the illusion that we can achieve our desired profits faster. As a result, we play too aggressively, with too large sums in comparison to the total capital we have, which translates into losses.

We also lack patience in business. This, combined with a lack of adequate capital, can lead to disaster. The capital invested pays back very slowly, if at all. It often takes several or even more than ten years for the money to be returned to us. Otherwise, investing in new businesses would be easy and anyone could do it.

Impatience combined with a lack of capital leads to failure

As I wrote above, impatience combined with a lack of capital leads to failure. Unfortunately, the aforementioned impatience is often caused by insufficient capital for our investment. Instead of planning our budget conservatively, we often overestimate our business and the result is what it is. In 2024 alone, just over 11,000 companies were established in Poland and almost as many closed down. Apart from the fact that these companies could not withstand the competition, they simply lacked the money to continue operating. Perhaps, if they had more investment capital, many companies would have survived and maybe even grown?

Read also: My mistakes in business

I also had a terrible year in 2024. And if it weren’t for the financial backing, I probably wouldn’t have survived in the market. But thanks to my savings and keeping expenses to a minimum, I managed to stay in the market and in 2025 I have a slightly more optimistic outlook on my business.

Today, we can only speculate on this topic. However, it is worth remembering that when starting a business, we cannot be sure of anything. A bad period can come at any time. And it can last from a month to several years. That is why having enough capital is so important. You have to observe the market, the competition, changing trends, customer expectations and look for opportunities to meet their needs. There is no other way.