How Patient Are You? Gaining Perspective in Brazil

Just returned from a week in Brazil!  I keynoted for over 400 Procurement Officers in Sao Paulo (spoke the beginning and ending in Portuguese, and was simultaneously translated into the headsets they wore), and then some vaycay in Rio.  Some of you know two of my biggest passions are flowers and jewels.  Looking at their beauty fills me up, takes away my appetite (a huge plus) and just plain makes me happy.  I know as a jewelry consumer, that Rio has gemstones indigenous to that country alone, so when I had the opportunity one morning to tour a gemstone workshop, I jumped at it.  I watched one craftswoman meticulously filling in color on the painting of a bracelet, to give to the jewel cutter, who would then painstakingly spend many hours faceting each stone.  I admired their patience—one of my lifelong lessons.  You teach what you most need to learn, so I’m constantly “teaching” people to have patience (see “push the pause button” in my book, “Bless Your Stress:  It Means You’re Still Alive!” and “blow your internal whistle” in my book, “Necessary Roughness:  New Rules for the Contact Sport of Life.”)

Today, when talking about patience, we mean tolerating delay—accepting it without complaint.  I practiced it a lot in Brazil, sitting in traffic in taxis . . .and the point was driven home in a serendipitous way that afternoon after the gemstone factory.  I chose to visit the spectacular Botanical Gardens in Rio, and lo and behold, here was the sign in front of the Orchid House:

“Sponsoring the Orchid House was the largest outcome of the admiration that Antonio Bernardo has for orchids,” says the sign, “His dedication to these plants provided him with something else: patience. ‘I wouldn’t say I’m a patient person, but I have some patient aspects,’ Bernardo writes.  ‘I exercise them when dealing with orchids and creating jewels.  I’m capable of creating a jewel that must be welded 800 times.  This takes patience, calm and control, as do plants.’”

How cool is that?  Patience, calm and control—characteristics vital to growing and sustaining our businesses.  How do we cultivate these?  One minute at a time. Here are the thoughts I keep top of mind to remind me to be patient—they may help you as well:

1.  As I learned at Disney, “Everything is for my entertainment or my education, so if it’s not fun, I must be learning.”  Or, as my sister says, “What’s the blessing in this stressing?”

2.  Be like an athlete: shake off the bad plays—or the rejections from potential clients.  Don’t carry it with you a moment more.  Each moment is a new moment of NOW.

3.  EGBOK.  Everything’s gonna be okay.  Really.