Patience. It is the one aspect of a personality that can be both incredibly valuable and detrimental all at the same time. It is the ultimate high wire challenge. In business it becomes even more challenging. I am faced daily with decisions of when to be incredibly patient in waiting for a response and when to be extremely impatient when trying to get a new aspect of the business moving forward.
The directions we choose in life, the educational choices we make, the car we drive, the house we live in, even the people we choose to make part of our lives, such as our wives, husbands and friends all have some intricate relationship to the degree of patience we have. Too much patience and the term “analysis paralysis” and “lack of action” become the model; too little patience and “reckless” and “impetuous” become the mantra to which we are held.
What’s the answer then? How do we know how much patience is too much and when does too little patience become exceedingly dangerous. Many business books tell us, “acting quickly, with gut instincts based upon experience and the best information” as the best way to make a decision. Others tell us that “decision matrices and thorough buy in” would be the best way to act. Read ten business books and you will get ten different opinions about decision making, leadership and management. It’s analogous to reading diet books, no two ever the same, each with its own set of rules and answers. How can we possibly know what’s right.
The answer is that no “one” of them is entirely right, but each contains clues and options that we can build into our own personality to make change and build success. I make mistakes daily, either because I have acted too slowly or in many cases too quickly, acting before I had all the information. In the end, my success will not be based upon patience or impatience; my ability to act quickly or wait until I have complete information. My success will be based upon my ability to REACT to the changing landscape. It is my ability to react to the environment, to change course when necessary, to guide the sail against the wind or let the ship flow with it, it is my ability to chart a course, but remain flexible enough to make small movements left and right all while maintaining a bead on my ultimate destination.
A good friend of mine passed the CPA exam on the first sitting (not a very easy feat), in fact, aced it, way back when it was a three day ordeal. He was asked repeatedly what his secret was. Did he study one subject more than the other? Did he take a review class? Did he do more multiple choice or essay practice? His answer was simple…”I studied my butt off”. I often hear people talk about the latest weight loss gimmick or strategy, when the answer is as simple as exercising, eating healthy foods and shutting your pie hole when someone asks you if you want seconds. Success is not based upon your patience or lack thereof, it is not tied to the latest management theory or fad, it is not rooted in how educated you are or how many opportunities you are given; in the end, the single most important traits you need are perseverance and an ability to change and react to new situations. It is your ability to define your goal, use common sense, and keep getting up off the mat, no matter how many times you’re knocked down. It is your ability to move back and forth in the water, while always keeping your eye on the ultimate goal.
This year I will be turning 39, I am 1 year away from the BIG 40! I’ve been physically active since I was in high school but it wasn’t until about 5 years ago that I really began to understand what being fit really meant. I started lifting weights, doing more cardio and began to understand the importance of good eating habits. When I was in high school I remember going to the grocery store very close to my home almost every day for a fresh hot loaf out of the oven and a slice of cheesecake. Sometimes I’d eat the inside of the loaf before I got back home! A fresh loaf of bread with butter and pretty much any homemade dessert you can think of were and still are my vice’s. My junior year in high school was the tipping point I was wearing a size 10/12 and I was only 15! That summer I resolved to get thin even if it meant not eating and exercising like a mad teenager. I looked like a skeletal twin of my old self at 5’6” and 104 pounds, definitely very healthy. Needless to say, during my freshman year of college I gained the “Freshman 15” and then some. From then on my weight has fluctuated anywhere from 118 pounds to most recently 160.
Through the years I’ve realized what types of food my body responds to unfortunately, hot buttered French loaves is not one of them. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying not to eat bread (I’m sure most fitness experts will disagree) I’m just saying that I see a dramatic difference in my physical appearance when I eat bread.
Bored with my workout routine and with my weight on the high end again I decided to do something I’d never done before, enter my first figure competition two years ago. I’ve always liked to challenge myself but little did I know what was in store for me. My primary goal was to lose weight and compete. If I placed that was just icing on the cake.
The contest was a huge motivator and I thought if I just compete I would be content. I was content for a while but two years later my weight has creeped up again. Unhappy with my current weight and not being able to fit into my clothes I decided to compete again. So on May 8th I will be entering my second figure competition.
As I write this I am currently training with a trainer and dieting for the competition. This time around I am determined to not let my weight get out of control again once the competition is over. How do I plan to do that? I had an epiphany and realized that being healthy is a choice and involves a long term lifestyle change. It requires that you make a conscious effort to fuel your body with healthy choices. Sometimes they may not be the most flavorful, you may be the only one around you not having that slice of pizza or hamburger but you will reap the most benefits of your healthy choices. For the next 100 days I will take you on my journey to the May 8, 2010 USA Tour of Ms. Bikini Universe. Throughout the course of my journey I will talk about my diet, training, and the discipline and focus required. My goal this time around is to be first in my division. My trainer said it best, “why would you want to make all these sacrifices and train so hard and not shoot for first”? I am a firm believer that you can do anything you want to in life if you set your mind to it and BELIEVE in yourself! So the journey begins…
BELIEVE!
Leeann
The old saying goes “there is nothing that is a constant, except change.”
I am sitting in the office of a factory CEO in China and looking out the window at very beautiful green mountains. The mountains have been here for thousands of years and have seen great changes, both in the people around them and even to their own face as wind, water and fire have moved them and changed their appearance many times over.
This is my first trip to China and I am struck by the kindness of her people and the great lengths they go to in making a customer feel at home. I am also in awe of the significant amount of new construction and large buildings going up, seemingly everywhere I have traveled in this country. It is almost a trip back in time to what the United States must have been like at the turn of the century and the beginning of the Industrial Age. China is a dichotomy in that all of the this new economic prowess continues to make it an huge economic power, and its residents seem to gravitate toward these major changes in their lives and their culture with a thirst I have not seen in America in my life time, yet the daily life on the streets seems so much the same as it probably has been for many years. Here farmers work their fields next to new factories that house many, if not all of its workers. The industrial and residential areas are one with the farms that probably have been worked for centuries. It is different for someone like me that has always grown up in areas where strict city codes have separated farms from industry from living areas. I am not pretending to say one is right or wrong, but to me it is just different. It is change.
In America, I was always very frustrated with the severe resistance to change I encountered with many people in multiple walks of life. Whether it was the installation of new computer system software, a new process for increasing efficient production of goods or services, or simply new, fresh ideas on an old problem, many people would fight change with every last breath within them, without accounting for whether or not the change was good or bad for them, just simply because it was change. To me, change has always been exhilarating. I looked forward to new challenges, new problems to fix, new processes to build. It kept me awake and alive.
Innovation itself is change. Progress is change. Education is change. Meeting new people and seeing new things is change. It took me a long time to finally understand that people are not really opposed to change. It is that people are scared of it. They fear the unknown and those things that are very new to them. It is not change they object to, it is fear they let hold them down. To be sure, as this was my first trip to China, I was very apprehensive prior to coming. I do not know the language and I do not know the people or the customs. It was scary. But I must say, as I sit here surrounded by customers from Syria, Bangladesh, and China, I am a better person for realizing that fear is just an emotion, like happiness, sadness, or anger. Because it is an emotion, we can control it and make it work for us. We can use it to recognize that when we feel it, we are innovating, we are educating ourselves, we are expanding our world, and growing as people. Fear should not be the door that stops us from moving forward, it should be the catalyst to recognize that we are heading in the right direction.
Hello. I would like to introduce myself. I am Dean Romero, CEO for Brepps Unlimited, LLC which manufactures a new product to the market called Breppies. I will also say, that will be the last time you will ever read a shameless plug about my company.
I was encouraged to write this blog by my girlfriend. She said I am often long winded and opinionated, so I should spend that energy on something that might help someone in their career, life goals, or perhaps just with a problem they have.
I assume the first question on your mind is “what makes this joker think he knows enough to give other people advice?” I know that’s what I would ask. The truth is I don’t have any special talent or doctorate in Psychology, or any special training for that matter. What I do have is experience, optimism, and a will to always keep trying, even when things seem bleak.
I’ll be the first to tell you that I am not sunshine and roses all the time, nor am I always Mr. Positive, spreading the gospel of “pick yourself up by your own bootstraps thinking”. I am emotional, and I have many ups and downs, just like everyone else. What I do know is, the more I learn about successful happy people, is that they just seem to pick themselves out of the dirt just one more time than most others do. It has nothing to do with special talent, smarts, schooling, birth right, or any of those things. At the end of the day, perseverance is what rules. Never giving up, never giving in, putting one foot in front of the other, etc.
I have made many mistakes in my life. I have made poor decisions about some of the people I chose to associate with, poor choices about career aspirations, and spent a lot of time doing things that were very unhealthy for me. Yet, through it all, I write this to you on the one yard line of achieving everything I always dreamed of. I didn’t get here because I was a straight A student (I wasn’t), or because I am exceptionally good looking (I’m not), or because I have the gift of gab (I don’t). In the end I got here because I have a dream to one day be in charge of a successful, innovative, multinational company that I built myself. I have the dream to always control my life and how I approach it, and never having to give those decisions to a boss, or colleague, or someone else that might not have my best interests at heart.
If the first thing you are thinking is “this guy must be wealthy since he runs his own company”, I am not. I hope to be one day soon, as I have bet everything, my entire life savings, on a product I hope will be successful. I am writing this blog in some ways as much for me as for anyone that reads it. I am living the life of an entrepreneur, with all its ups, downs, wins, losses, achievements and setbacks. It’s risky, humbling and altogether frightening. I live each day wondering how long I will be able to hold out with the little money I have left. It is also the most fun I have ever had.
I will try to blog daily about things I experience, thoughts, leadership ideas, and goals. I hope through this I am able to help someone else close their eyes, take a step into the dark, and realize their potential.
