By Janet Civitelli

This post introduces a couple of 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 (http://www.tworld.com) 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 older 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.”

Tina Paparone, co-founder of children’s gift company, BeMe, says that before she became an entrepreneur, 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