The Missing Key to Your Success

Julius Caesar said, “It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.” To succeed you must have a vast amount of enduring patience.

What is patience? 

According to Barbara Johnson, it’s the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears. Guy Kawasaki said it’s the art of concealing your impatience, while Titus Plautus concludes that it’s the best remedy for every trouble.'

I submit to you that patience is the missing link to your success…

So when things go wrong remember that the grass will grow again, yes it will take time, but in the words of Jean Jacques Rousseau, “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet,” so don’t overreact, don’t over steer, be patient, let things settle, less you find your delay considerably longer than it would otherwise be.

The scripture teaches us that in your patience you possess your soul, which is perhaps why Francis Bacon noted that whoever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul. Elbert Hubbard said, “How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.” It’s true.

You were almost there, you had just about figured it out, and then your impatience got the better of you, which is perhaps why Solomon wrote, he that controls his anger is greater than the mighty.

Christina Milian said, “My advice to someone who would follow in my footsteps is to have patience. I’ve been doing this for twelve years.” Saint Francis de Sales wisely noted, “Have patience with all things. But, first with yourself.” And Saadi said, “Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.” You’ve been trying to succeed without patience! You failed to apprehend three of the most critical steps to success.

They are:

First to have patience, second to be patient, and third to endure patiently. No one succeeds without patience. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." 

Have you been over reacting?

Have you been impatient?

It didn’t take you a week to get into your situation; it won’t take you a week to get out of it.

Anxiety causes the waters of life to rage; dooming your success, but patience stills the waters and allows you to navigate safely to your intended destination.

Don’t be like Tom Holt, Tom said, “Everything is out there if you know how to find it, and you have the patience. I don’t and have it, but that’s my problem.” 

Don’t just know that you need patience..... have patience. I like to say, there’s nothing you can’t achieve if you have the three “P’s”: Purpose, Passion, and Patience. 

You have to have patience. 

George Savile wisely observed that, “A man who is a master of patience is a master of everything else.” 

Thomas Kempis said, “All men commend patience, although few are willing to practice it.”

Are you practicing patience? 

Benjamin Franklin said, “He that can have patience can have what he will.”

Arnold Glasow noted “The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.”

Francis Quarles said, “Abused patience turns to fury.” But I think he had it wrong. True patience isn’t putting up with, true patience is faith and works in action. 

which is maybe why Michelangelo said that “Genius is eternal patience.”

I believe that Edmund Burke said it best, he simply said, “Our patience will achieve more than our force.”

Be patient, be consistent, and in time you will have your desires. In the profound words of William Penn, “Patience and diligence, like faith, will remove mountains.

Thank you for reading

 IKAWO O. E.

Extract from