Persistent Patience

I did not invent the saying “Never Underestimate the Power of Patient Persistence.” It was on the back of a businessman’s card that I met in the 1980’s. I don’t remember his name but I remembered the statement so I give him the credit.

The line fit his business. He arranged the merger of small independent banks, calling himself a “financial matchmaker”. In his world it sometimes took years from his first idea of a financial “betrothal” to when the deal was done. To assure that he earned his pay he had to be patient, waiting for the right moment in time to execute the different steps of the courtship. He also had to be persistent, maintaining the contacts with the two parties, talking to all of the “eligible's” to understand what the needs of the owners were so he could understand How a deal could be packaged. He was successful, and the mergers that he helped create were each successful. He built a reputation for his insight, approach, and discretion.

He was successful for some time. Others saw his success, thought about the payday and attempted to copy his methods. The competition was not patient, the pace of the business picked up. Inappropriate “marriages” started to happen. The businessman felt the pressure, some of the deals that he had been quietly tending to were poached by the competition. He started to loose his patience; and without the buffering subtlety of his patience his persistence became irritating to the bank owners he was attempting to “engage”. He forgot the formula that had been his success, and ended his business when he realized that his magic, his reputation was gone.

Just as a chef can ruin a great meal with impatience, so can you ruin a business. Patience is not inaction -patience is not passive. Mixed with the right amount of persistence patience becomes reflection, thoughtfulness, wisdom. Our clients value the wisdom that comes from our patient persistence.

In the last 15 years technology has delivered fantastic improvements to photography. First came auto-exposure, then auto-focus, then film has been replaced with silicon. The technical aspect of photography has been removed, so now it is simple to take great photographs.

Or is it so easy?

The digital cameras of today are PHD cameras, as in “Push Here Dummy”. They are great at making great snap shots, but it is a lucky person that gets a truly fabulous photograph from one.

Why?

Because the use of the automatic features remove the control that the photographer has from capturing the scene and recording it so that it can convey the story. The shutter speed, the aperture of the lens, the focal length of the lens, the speed of the film, the focus of the lens, and the timing of the exposure are all controls that the true photographic artist uses to capture the moment to create a quality photograph and not a snapshot.

That skill takes patient and persistent practice to develop and master.

An expert photographer looks at the scene and in their mind envisions the picture that will capture the event. They choose the right lens, film, shutter speed, aperture and focus for the photograph that matches with their vision.

And then they patiently wait for the decisive moment to trigger the shutter.

There is a difference between “Good Enough” and “Great”. “Good Enough” is when you don’t have time to do it right. “Great” is when you take the time to patiently and persistently work until create it.

We take the time to develop a authentic relationship with our clients. We seek to understand their concerns, fears, obstacles, needs and abilities to develop the “Right” solutions.

We do not work slow. Like the professional photographer or the 5 star chef, we have practiced our art, and the science behind our art, so that we can quickly develop and apply solutions that deliver the impact that our clients are seeking. But we don’t rush - we are deliberate in our process to reduce risk and improve reward.

It’s not a issue if a client does not have an immediate need for our services. We will invest our time to engage to learn more about the client, and let the client learn more about us. The interaction may help the client decide the right solution on their own, or they may decide to ask us to help. In either case, we served.

Extraction – Through education and with our wisdom we help our clients see the root causes of their problems. We then help extract our clients from the pitfalls that destroy their profits. (WE help them get their heads out of their asses.)

Recovery – With education and guidance – we help our clients develop ways to fix the problems that they have. We help them recover from the wounds, for there are always wounds created by the initial action.

Expansion – Through enthusiastic education we help our clients build to expand the support structure of their business, to better deliver to their customers, to delight their customers, helping our clients deliver greater VALUE to their customers, delivering expansion to their business.

Prevent – We provide a map and the knowledge to identify the supply chain land mines that exist that could wound destroy our clients business as they grow and succeed.

Finding the “Right” solution takes patience and persistence.
It takes more than skill to develop the “Right” solution—it takes experience.
We are Patently Persistent.