Stop Waiting for the "Right Time"

“I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over. “ – Warren Buffett

I’m impatient. I usually can’t wait for the results of what I’m doing. I just need to get to the end of it and know whether it’s a success or a bust. But hey, I think I’m improving on this department bit by bit. I get a little patient on a lot of things now. Well I hope so. I can’t wait to see myself….oops!

We all want to reach the plateau. THINK BIG! That’s what we usually hear and read on topics about success. True enough that if a person can’t visualize a big dream, what more to reach it? But most of the time, people are stuck in there. People spend their time day dreaming about the experience they may have once they get there. Just like when we’re out with our buddies talking over a bottle or two, we usually hear people talking like this: “You know what, I really wanted to start up this thing. I am very interested about it since I was a kid. I love to begin doing that, probably one of these days. Blah blah blah….”. Then the other guy replies with his own sets of “interests and plans”. Yet, after the drinking session, the next day comes like they had never talked about anything. Then on their next meeting, they discuss the same things all over again. Sounds familiar? Almost all of us wish to be doing something rather than the situation we are in today. But only a few act on it. And here’s the reason why.

We are so obsessed with results. Who doesn’t love winners anyway? The stigma of losing in our society seems unbearable as this is the era where kicking someone who’s down and out becomes a norm. We idolize those people on top and forgetting that on their way up, they had failed many times. We forget that these people began from the bottom just like most of us. But rather making it as an inspiration, a lot of us make excuses by saying that their situation was different than ours and that they had the odds mostly on their side. I agree that each scenario is different but success was never an assurance to anyone.

Thomas Edison never made the bulb in one try. Only a few cares about Warren Buffett’s investments in his first decades in the business scene. Henry Sy’s family went to the Philippines with almost nothing that they couldn’t even buy him a pair of shoes. Albert Einstein failed his entrance exam to a school in Switzerland making him an equivalent to a high school dropout. Manny Pangilinan was turned down on his first job application. But like what we usually say, then the rest was history.

We all want to take shortcuts. We're all looking for the “right time” to start on something. Then we are impatient of results. We all want success NOW. But looking at some of these successful peoples’ lives, they were “failures” at one point in time. But the common denominator for them is that, it didn’t stop them at what they were doing. They braved through the first small steps, those first awkward steps that most of us would not dare to try. We all wanted to take the “big leap” after “thinking big”. But that’s not the way it usually goes. We need to have patience and courage to make that first move.  Keep in mind that success is not just about being able to think big, but also the willingness to take small steps at the beginning of the journey.

If you want to write a novel someday, start writing now. If you want to own a food business someday, start cooking and learn more about it now. If you want to get promoted, improve your quality of work now. If you want to invest, start researching about it now. If you want to start a hobby, go for it now. The only thing that you need to stop now is “talking” about it. No more excuses.  Just start doing it NOW.