Patience and Pause

I was listening to John Tesh radio and he referenced an MIT study on getting a job offer. We’ll get to that in a second. This post has been in draft form for some time as I’ve been biding my time looking for a few additional nuggets. It’s a juxtaposition of patience and pause.

Patience with material possessions

I was refinishing our kitchen table a few months ago and impatient as I was getting I decided to call a friend. In addition to his day job, he is also a master carpenter and furniture restoration expert.  I had the table sanded and was about to “slap on the stain” in typical barn door fashion. Wait.  I called him.  Fortunately for the fate of our table he said “I’ll be right over.  Don’t do anything until I get there.”  It took an additional investment, environment friendly furniture stripper, a palm sander, and the proper type of stain/seal.  I made my second trip to Valu and got “the right stuff.” Three days later I ended up with a beautiful masterpiece. The value of patience and a little advice from a true craftsman.

Pause when you want to get through something 

Speed to benefit is the new norm in the fast paced business world. We all go through life and not everything needs to be so hurried.  I used to be an awful public speaker.  Well I’ve gotten better because it couldn’t have gotten worse.  I recall a friend telling me, “Just pause when you need to pause.  The words will come and we’re not going anywhere. Patience and pause. I was  doing my dad’s eulogy and a friend told me, “Just pause, we can wait.  The words will be right.

Patience and pause in the business world

Although I was able to keep myself busy, I learned the value of patience and persistence.  It was 1993, the year where I started our partnership and honored a non-compete. One day at a time I learned the value of patience as I clicked the 365 days off the calendar. I wanted to create a great business. I didn’t have a smartphone then and the now common occurrence of switching gears and multitasking didn’t exist then the way things are today.  28 years later we’re still making it better.  

Texting

Patience and pause. Put the phone in the glove box and save a life.

Speed things up

Let’s add the OpEd thoughts.  With regard to baseball and golf. They’re running the game as if it was the  pace of a cement mixer. These games have slowed to a crawl with practice swinging, looking at putts from every angle and switching pitchers.  Speed things up here folks. Look at the put for a second the way Hogan did and move things along. That last putt and the next drive is really what happens in the game of life. And Baseball. They switch pitchers more than Lady Gaga switches outfits.

Career advice. Hit the pause button.

Thanks to John Tesh’s tidbit on the MIT study, here’s today’s tip. On negotiating a job offer. What happens to the mind and body when you get a job offer? You want the job and have a feeling the money won’t meet your expectations. What to do in a face to face situation.  Simply pause and make eye contact.  Research proves you might just get more money 10 seconds later with a brief pause. 

Ironically it’s in waiting and having patience when many good things happen. So when making something look nice worth looking at, giving a speech, that next business, the next career move, take your time.  Patience pays. When looking at that putt, move things along, your friends will appreciate it and leave more time for what really matters, the 19th hole.