"The things I've done in my life have required a lot of years of work before they took off."
Many times during our business careers, no matter what stage it's at, we start to think things should be going quicker. While there very well be times where we're doing something to hinder our progress, just as many other times it's only the time factor that is stretching things out, and there isn't much to do but keep on working with it.
How many times have we heard that overnight successes are really the culmination of years of work that are suddenly publicly or financially rewarded? It's the public that is made to think it just happened out of nowhere, because they are never around to see the quiet, behind-the-scenes work that always comes before a success.
The problem we can have is hearing others in their success, and then forgetting that nothing different has happened with them that happens to all of us: They quietly went about doing their work, until the work of many years suddenly rose up before them and became an "instant" success.
His company Apple (AAPL) has been a great example of the practicality of this.
Anything that looks like it is instant, isn't. If we remember that, we won't get discouraged when things take some time to work, or our competitors come up with something that looks like it came out of nowhere.
It eliminates a somewhat mystical take on things, which because they aren't watched in their formative stages, as that would bore most people to death, seems to be a magical, instantaneous happening. There, for the most part, isn't such a thing.
The greatest of inventors or business leaders are successful after years of working at something. Even in the Internet area, where overnight successes seem to appear every other week, they have come from years of tinkering and trying things out.
What makes it look instantaneous sometimes, is the one working on it may have been 15-years-old when they started, and at the ripe old age of 21, have suddenly exploded onto the scene. Either way, it's the same process for everyone.
Another thing to think of, is many time a lot of press coverage can make something look like it's wildly successful, but for something to take off, means more than simply making some extraordinary sales over a short period of time. It's the ability to service and manage those sales and customers over a period of time that determines real success.
If we keep these things in mind, we won't be so discouraged or tempted to do dumb things because we see a number of seemingly magical successes emerge, which in reality were years in the making. Jobs is a great example of that being true.
Other Steve Jobs Resources:
You've got to find what you love
Steve Jobs, Business Personality
Steve Jobs' Greatest Presentation
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