My previous blog post focused on the reasons why an entrepreneur is likely to need patience. This post introduces three entrepreneurs who aren’t naturally patient by temperament but who intentionally learned patience as a business and life skill. I will also suggest a three step process to learn patience.

Andrew Cagnetta, CEO of Transworld Business Brokers, recalls, “Patience came tough to me as a New Jersey Italian American young entrepreneur. I thought I would be financially independent at 25. Now that I am 45 and not financially independent by my definition (although successful by others), I have learned that real business success is a marathon, not a sprint. Change in degrees requires patience. You have to let repetition and education ferment/mellow like a good wine.”

In 2008, Greg Stallkamp launched Holos Fitness, a social networking Web site focused on a physically active lifestyle. Before starting his new company, Mr. Stallkamp worked in the fast-paced world of finance and investment banking. In his finance career, patience was not required. But in his new venture, Mr. Stallkamp learned that there were often times when technical staff could not be rushed to finish projects if they were going to do their jobs well. Mr. Stallkamp found himself impatiently waiting for results and becoming upset about his perception that his company was growing more slowly than he would like.

Out of necessity, Mr. Stallkamp taught himself to multitask rather than hound his employees to hurry up. While Holos Fitness employees are working to meet deadlines, Mr. Stallkamp focuses on leadership and strategic design. He says, “It is a small compromise and one that still requires a great deal of patience. However, it has helped me adjust to an entirely new way of doing business.”

Tina Paparone, co-founder of children’s gift company, BeMe, says that before she became an entrepreneur in 2009, she equated patience with being lazy or boring. After she co-launched BeMe, Ms. Paparone tried to use pushy and overbearing business tactics that worked well for her in the past, but she quickly realized that these strategies were not working well at BeMe. Ms. Paparone forced herself to slow down and practice patience, commenting, “I still believe that if you build it, they will come, but it might take awhile… by accepting I cannot control everything, I have actually re-established control of my own environment.”

Are you motivated to learn patience? If so, here is how to do it:

1.  Accept the necessity of patience in work and other spheres of life. Until you make it a conscious goal to be patient, you are less likely to achieve it.

2.   Find a mindfulness/stress management strategy that works well for you. Experiment with exercise, meditation, yoga, journaling, etc. Doing this helps you to have a longer fuse, making it much easier to feel patient during challenging circumstances.

3.   Be patient about learning to be patient. You probably won’t go from chronic impatience to blissful patience overnight. Instead, your journey will likely be one of ups and downs, successes and failures. As long as the overall trend is toward increasing patience over time, consider it a victory!

Echoing one of Ms. Paparone’s favorite quotes:

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