I’ve been hearing the word patience used often, especially in the context of the social economy. "Patient capital" is the term used for money invested in social efforts, where people allow for longer terms of repayment; "patient investors" are (you guessed it) those who invest in social ventures. All this talk made me examine my own relationship to patience, both in my personal and professional life.
As an American I have an aversion to being patient. Western cultures equate patience with stagnation, the enemy of growth. Let’s face it, patience is boring and unexciting. It reminds me of waiting in line at the DMV, the epitome of hell on earth.
The common perception remains that businesses demonstrate success by constantly growing, each quarter. This leaves little room for patience as stockholders and investors demand larger profits, which feeds the culture of more.
The social economy also grows impatient waiting to prove its legitimacy and demonstrate successes to skeptical capitalists and pessimistic altruists. However, in this newly formed sector, there lies opportunity to do things differently, out of necessity and intention. Social entrepreneurs don’t have the luxury of massive returns and creating new Mark Zuckerbergs. Instead, they must accept a new definition of success and enjoy the often hidden aspects that patience brings to the table.
I am also battling with having patience in my personal life. I’m impatient for finding love, getting my dream job, finding the best Brooklyn apartment, solving life’s toughest questions. Unfortunately, my impatience causes me to focus on tangible outcomes of success, which in turn blind me from enjoying the unfolding journey. I forget to be grateful for what I have, and am instead focused on what I am lacking. In making this observation, I realized that this lesson also makes sense in the context of businesses, a value that we can need to bring to the social economy.
As we enter into this new era of cross-sector collaboration, it seems the perfect moment to do things differently and learn from the lessons of the past. We have all seen first hand the Wall Street greed and environmental devastation of wanting more than our share, and impatiently demanding it now.
If this sector is in fact going to “succeed” by adding both social and financial value to the world, it must bring something entirely new to the table, infusing values that we lost along the way. I’ve heard it called bringing soul back to business. If we continue to be impatient, and push the need for results and outcomes, rather than focusing on making the journey more valuable, we will be no different than any other sector, and this will be the biggest failure of all.
