We do not always think of patience as one of the most important factors in success, but it is just the same. The patient individual is one who does not sow their crop of seed today and expect to reap a harvest of results tomorrow. They know that it will take time, attention, and effort to till the ground and cultivate the crop.
We are prone to think of the patient as plodders, lacking in enthusiasm. But this is false.
The patient have the right kind of enthusiasm.
Someone once said that “Unintelligent enthusiasm is worse than none at all,” and it’s true, because it generally carries a person in the wrong direction; while patience enables those whose enthusiasm is of the right kind, to apply just the amount of force when and where it is needed, and then to await developments.
The patient are successful because they are ready to try one method after another until they discover the right method. They never shirk from doing their duty – their real duty.
Sometimes it takes all of their patience to find what that duty is, and perhaps finding it is more difficult than doing it, but the patient always find it, as all things come their way.
Without deep, strong, and abiding patience, we are more than likely to lose our poise, our vision, and our perspective. And without those, no one can succeed.
A great many people are always on the lookout for something new, thinking that because they have not succeeded, old methods must be poor indeed. Perhaps all that is needed is closer, wiser, and more patient application of old methods to everyday problems.
Experience is teaching all of us that the code of ethics established for the guidance of human-kind long centuries ago, is still as fine as ever, and that no one has yet improved upon it. Let us have patience to look at life and its conduct, at business and all its ramifications, with constructive patience.
