Developing Active Patience

Hi, I’m David and my mission in life is to prepare people for the future of work.?

In this week's edition of the newsletter the theme revolves around patience or the ability to wait for something without getting angry or upset if it will take some time before it arrives.?Throughout history, religions and philosophers have long praised the virtue of patience, which has been celebrated as a quality or trait that most people consider to be morally good. In today’s fast-paced world we live in, patience seems to be an even more precious asset, one that can make the difference between those who succeed in life, and those who don’t. Idioms such as “good things come to those who wait”, which was attributed to Violet Fane, are often brought up to remind us that people who wait patiently are typically rewarded. However, if achieving one’s goals in life mainly depends on how patient a person can be, then why aren’t all couch potatoes (i.e. a lazy and inactive person) millionaires by now? That’s because patience doesn’t come in only one form, but in two: active and passive. Active patience means putting yourself in the best position possible to get what you want, while passive patience means waiting for the universe to give you what you want. Below are some insights and thoughts that will help you discern between the two forms of patience and learn how to develop active patience, which will set you up for future success.?

Timeless Insight

“Patience is not passive, on the contrary, it is concentrated strength.” – Bruce Lee?

"Patience is a virtue" is a proverbial phrase referring to one of the seven heavenly virtues typically said to date back to Psychomachia, an epic poem written in the fifth century A.D. Fast forward to today, and patience retains its mantle as one of the key positive virtues one can practise, together with other healthy virtues such as honesty, kindness, and empathy. However, neither Prudentius (i.e. the Late Antique Latin poet who wrote the Psychomachia), nor contemporary poets and self-help authors who preach patience as the quintessential virtue have highlighted a vital caveat, there are two types of patience: passive and active. These two types or approaches to patience are as different as the results they can lead to. Passive patience is waiting for the world to give you what you want, without taking any action to bring it about. A lot of people live their life with passive patience. Rather than go after the promotion at work they yearn for, they expect it to fall in their lap. Rather than go after the love of their life, they sit back and expect to be courted. Rather than chase their dreams, they wait for just the right opening that always seems around the corner but never comes. Active patience is different. It involves taking the necessary steps towards your goals while understanding that the results you want to achieve may take time. Active patience means?not only applying for the promotion but taking your time to build the skills you need to put yourself in the best position possible to succeed in the long term. Active patience means going after the love of your life and chasing your dreams, while being patient with the results.

Food for Thought

The world isn’t indebted to you, and no one is destined to come your way, tap your shoulder, and present you with the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Life doesn’t work that way.?

In 1686, Sir Isaac Newton, English polymath who was active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, and theologian developed his three laws of motion to explain the relationship between a physical object and the forces acting upon it. Newton’s third law of motion states that “for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.”?

Five years from now, a person who is passively patient and waits for the universe to give them what they want, will likely still be waiting. Passive patience violates Newton’s third law.?

Active patience implies taking significant steps today to set yourself up for future success. It’s about strategically preparing for what lies ahead and positioning yourself for success, regardless of how uncertain the future is: saving more than you spend and investing wisely, developing the necessary skills for future job prospects, choosing kindness over meanness.

Active patience puts you in the best position to get what you want. There is almost always an action you can take to improve the odds. Active in the moment but patient with the results.

The longer I read about the world of investing the more I realise that, in essence, investing is about finding the right balance between active and passive patience. Mastery requires both. The active patience to have a bias towards action and to work with a sense of urgency daily. The passive patience to trust the process and to wait for your actions to compound in time.

In the investing world, you get one or two great investment opportunities every few years. The rest of the time you spend patiently waiting for the next great opportunity to come along.?

Great investors develop active patience, which in the context of the investing world means knowing what type of investment you are looking for and doing nothing until you find it. Mediocrity is the price you pay for impatience or for being too active in the stock market. Mediocrity is the price you pay for not investing when you should or for being too passive.

You don’t need to catch every good investment if you’re willing to be patient and keep trying. Every winner has an archive of losses, but each attempt creates the chance for a victory.?

Active patience is not an inborn talent, but a skill you can develop over years and decades by following the three stages below, which I picked up from micro-cap investor and founder, Ian Cassel. He argues that “Many people never find out who they are. Even fewer figure out what they believe. Only a select few live out what they believe.” And I couldn’t agree more!?

• Developing Your Temperament – Finding out who you are.

Temperament means developing your views on risk, time horizons, volatility, position sizing, and value. It means determining what flavour of investing aligns with your natural inclination so you can apply it consistently over time, in order to set yourself up for long term success. After you develop your temperament and find out who you are, you can find your principles.

• Finding Your Principles – Finding out what you believe.

Principles are our guiding lights. They are the qualities of a business or of a person that are mandatory for you to invest in that business or to partner up with that person. Your principles allow you to say “No” to investment opportunities that may arise or to certain types of people. It takes time to find out what your principles are, but once you do, you must commit to them.

• Committing to Your Principles – Living out what you believe.

Commitment means having an unwavering confidence in yourself and in your principles. Total commitment is freedom. Total commitment is happiness. Once you find your principles, you must fully commit to them. Anything less is a waste of time. The longer you commit to your principles the more likely you are to set up your life in a way that opportunities find you.?

While this newsletter is too compact to get into the details of what going through each stage entails and how one can develop active patience, while keeping his/her impatience at bay, you can read more about the three stages in the following blog post written by Ian Cassel. And the key thing to remember about patience is that it only works if you do. So stay active!?

Article of the Week?

Are You Being Patient Enough to See Results?

Caricature of the Week

Source: Condé Nast

Thank you for reading and keep on growing!

David

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