“Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience.”
Speed is highly prized in the business world. How fast can we grow? How fast do we get back to our customers? How quickly can we overcome obstacles? Progress is so often associated with a speed that speed itself may produce the illusion of progress.
“Fail fast, scale fast” goes the motto in Silicon Valley these days. But not everyone in the cradle of modern American innovation believed in speed above all. Steve Jobs had a slightly different perspective on solving problems with creative solutions:
“When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions.”
Not every challenge should be met with speed. There are times when living with the problem gives you the experience and perspective you need to push past the obvious fixes which prevent you from attaining greater results.
A mind can be a lazy thing, but with discipline, we can train ourselves to keep from reaching for the first answer to every question. If you look at your life today, are you living with any quick-and-easy answers which might be improved with a little more effort? Where might you enhance things with a slower solution?
