When waiting becomes a superpower

When I was in college, my professor lent me his copy of the book “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse. This 1922 novel, originally written in German, deals with the journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Buddha.?

In a memorable passage in the book, Siddhartha seeks a job from a wealthy merchant. When asked by the merchant what he has to offer, Siddhartha says, “I can think, I can wait, I can fast.”

At that time, just as I was beginning to buy into the cult of speed, the idea that waiting can be a special ability was slightly inconvenient for my developing world view.?

Over the years, the need for speed in our world has only escalated, ever amplified by shared corporate wisdom, self-improvement literature, and lessons from lean startups.

Done is better than perfect.

Move fast and break things.

If you’re in control, you're not going fast enough.

We are so hardwired for action in our lives that anything that suggests inaction makes us look clueless, and therefore becomes terrifying. Researchers of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem analyzed soccer penalty kicks from top championships worldwide and came to the surprising realization that while 94 percent of the time the goalkeepers dived to their right or left — the chances of stopping the ball were highest when they just stayed in the center.?

So why do goalkeepers almost always dive instead of waiting where they are? Because, the researchers hypothesized, diving, even if it decreases the chance of them catching the ball, makes them appear decisive.

One only needs to reflect on life’s lessons to realize that while there are times for speed, there are times to slow down, and on some occasions, there are times to wait.

How are we to know what these times are?

You look for those endeavors of life where time itself is an ingredient of success. These are certainly not easy to recognize in the moment. But when that holds true, you do your utmost to exercise patience and wait. You can’t hurry time up.?

Take corporate strategy?for example. Most organizations look at strategy as decisive actions they need to take by?spotting opportunities early and exploiting them successfully before their competitors do so.

In 1998, when eminent strategy academic Richard Rumelt met with Steve Jobs, the personal computing war was evidently over with Microsoft being the clear winner, and Apple’s options were unclear. When Rumelt asked Jobs about his strategy, he smiled, and said, “I am going to wait for the next big thing.”?

As it turned out, that led to the iPod, a product that changed the music industry, greatly influenced subsequent product design, and dramatically changed Apple’s fortunes.

Instead of feeling a compulsion to do something, anything, Jobs had the wisdom to recognize that he needed the industry to change, for the conditions to be just right, and that at that point, waiting was the best idea.

Or take the idea of?compounding as an investment strategy. You pick the right assets, you invest early, and then you let your investments compound over time. As has been analyzed and demonstrated, one of the biggest reasons behind Warren Buffet’s massive fortune is the power of compounding.?

Jeff Bezos asked Buffet why everyone didn’t just copy his investment strategy, which was so simple and yet so brilliant. Buffett’s response was: “Because nobody wants to get rich slow.”?

So simple, yet so incredibly difficult.?

The French, who know a thing or two about waiting, thanks to centuries of wine making, have a word “élevage”. It’s the art of letting time and nature raise the wine from its post fermented raw state to the point where it becomes “art in a bottle”. It’s a fancy way of saying “waiting around”.

This ability - to recognize when circumstances in life or in business need to be given the time to be similarly “raised” by just waiting - is rare.?This is not a skill they teach in business or engineering schools. The ability to wait thus becomes a superpower.?

We sometimes wrongly assume that waiting means we are not doing anything, that we are passively allowing the future to unfold. But in reality, the very act of waiting changes us. We are wiser, more deliberate, more ready.?As Bertrand Russell said,

“The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”?

So when we feel stuck in our undertakings, recognizing that sometimes the secret ingredient is just time, and the best strategy can be to wait and let our wits grow sharper - that is a superpower worth developing.