Welcome back to Inc.’s 1 Smart Business Story! If you are like most founders we know, you are probably a little bit impatient. In fact, you may be a lot impatient. And impatience is one of those character traits that cuts both ways. On the one hand, impatient people change the world, they get things done, they win the argument. On the other hand, moving too fast can stress an organization, frustrating employees and leading to conflicting strategic objectives and half-finished projects. Does your business experience lots of starts and stops? That may be a reflection of your own temperament.

Moreover, impatience has classically been perceived as a sign of bad leadership. As former Harvard Business Review editor and Inc. columnist Karen Dillon notes, years of sociological research suggests that people are more measured and patient are more likely to succeed professionally. So how can an entrepreneur predisposed to a go-go-go mentality square this historical research with their own dynamic metabolism for business? 

As one entrepreneur told Dillon, “Though it might seem like I’m making impulsive moves, I’m always trying to figure out another way to achieve my goals.”

In this piece, you’ll discover:

You want to move fast but it freaks out employees. Should you slow down or should they speed up?

BY KAREN DILLON

By his own admission, 38-year-old serial entrepreneur Yagiz Aksu is impatient. “It’s my number-one enemy,” he told me—so much so that he had the word patience tattooed onto his left arm as a reminder to take a breath and slow down when he is faced with a tricky challenge.

Aksu is hardly unique. Research suggests that entrepreneurs are more impatient than other people, says Ariel McGrew, founder of Tactful Disruption, a business psychology and mental health consulting practice that’s based in Greeley, Colorado.

And yet, patience is often called a superpower in business. For decades, the Stanford marshmallow experiment—which asked children to delay eating a single marshmallow in front of them in exchange for a greater treat later on—was widely cited in leadership literature, as well as psychology texts and parenting advice, as evidence that self-control and patience are foundational traits for long-term success.

Still, for many entrepreneurs restraint does not come naturally. McGrew herself says that an instinctive sense of impatience—a desire to find hacks and cheat codes—helped make her company successful: “Though it might seem like I’m making impulsive moves, I’m always trying to figure out another way to achieve my goals.”

That same energy has also benefited Alesia Visconti, CEO of FranServe, an Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, company that helps investors become franchise owners. “My favorite time is now-o’clock,” she says, adding that quick decision-making can be a powerful competitive advantage. “Entrepreneurs as a species have learned to process information quickly,” she says. “Many of us would rather move forward, even when something is not 100 percent correct. That may seem like impatience, but in today’s business environment, time kills deals.”

Visconti concedes that making rapid decisions can backfire, citing a painful and costly hiring decision that took months to unwind. Over time, she’s built a management team that is unafraid to push back, adding that even if that doesn’t change her mind, she’s learned the value of pausing to let everyone catch up. “I process things quickly and can see the map in my head clear as day,” she says. “I’ve learned to bite my tongue and work on patience, but it’s a struggle for me.”

Though he also believes an innate sense of impatience serves him well as an entrepreneur, Aksu recognizes that it can trip him up. He once got so frustrated during an important pricing negotiation with FedEx that he started to write an email explaining that he was taking his business to its competitor, UPS—which would likely have cost his New Castle, Delaware, company more money in the long run. But a glance at his tattoo gave him pause, and he deleted the draft. Eventually, he got the deal he wanted with ­FedEx.

The struggle is real, and one I can relate to. As a rapid decision-maker, I know I sometimes communicate ineffectively with colleagues because, though I understand why I’ve made a decision, I don’t always take the time to explain my rationale. Once, when members of a leadership team I was part of took a DISC assessment to analyze our individual traits and motivations, I learned I was off-the-charts “red.” Among other things, that meant I was decisive and expected to get bottom-line information quickly.

By contrast, a colleague of mine was a strong “blue,” meaning that he cared deeply about the creative journey. Our profiles were dia­metrically opposed. This insight changed our working relationship for the better. For example, he began updating me on projects with statements like, “Going all red on you—I won’t make the deadline.” Once I heard that, I found I was more open to letting him tell me the backstory.

Aksu admits that if he had been a part of that Stanford study, he likely would have gobbled up the marshmallow. It’s just the way he’s wired. And as it turns out, that’s not a liability after all.

A major 2018 replication of the Stanford study—using a larger and more diverse sample—found that the original conclusions were overstated. The relationship between waiting for the marshmallow and later success largely disappeared. The prevailing wisdom today is that, while patience is valuable, acting quickly can also be rational depending on the environment. So go ahead, grab that marshmallow. And make sure you save one for me.

Kingscrowd Capital's senior analyst reviewed RISE Robotics and projected potential growth to a $500 million valuation. The community round is open now on Wefunder. You don't have to be an institutional investor to get in at today's price.

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