The revenge of the tortoise

We’ve heard a fair amount of clichés about how our lives became fast-paced and impatient.

Some claim that people can no longer listen or read lengthy texts; that we lack the patience to wait for prolonged periods, always wanting everything here and now. Entrepreneurial and hustle culture slogans seems to have fueled expectations of speed and immediacy in both our professional and personal life.

(Of course if you’ll stop reading now and you’ll move on to the next e-mail, you’ll confirm the degrade of the human race).

However, recent events in the world suggest that we may be on the brink of a healthier, more sustainable direction.

Moving fast and breaking things is not worth it

A few examples of recent events that seem to be proving the value of an alternative approach to the fast-paced one:

• OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, took over 8 years to achieve the milestones we witness today. During these years, Sam Altman (the founder and CEO) developed the technology and built the company. This process is the opposite of the prevailing mindset. In the public sector, success is often measured within short-term tenures, often ending before tangible results emerge – but with lots of cheerful pictures and slogans. In the business world, quarterly reports push for quick wins or worst – focus on irrelevant vanity results aimed at showcasing success.

• The current hi-tech crisis is caused by many elements, amongst them the belief that a successful company must grow rapidly, raising substantial funds before even generating profits from customers. This model has proven to be effective until we got into a series of economic downturns and socio-political crises: the investors’ money stops flowing, profits from customers are scarce, companies start struggling, Netflix shows on failing founders are made. Now the importance of stable profits as a prominent marker for success, especially for small and medium-sized companies is being re-evaluated.

• Modern managerial culture encourages relentless work to achieve immediate progress. It probably started as a countercultural shift led by tech start-ups who wanted to break free from corporate, slow, bureaucratic norms that fostered superficial work and playing games for recognition. Demanding that everything we want should happen instantly became an acceptable and widespread attitude, embraced by both managers and customers. This dynamic leads to challenges in retention of workforce and long-term relationship with potentially loyal clients.

It seems that we are realizing the drawbacks of the immediacy mindset.

Perhaps we stand at the threshold of a new/old era that values patience and deep thought, not only as investors and managers but also as a society. We understand that true progress takes time, thoughtful consideration, and a significant amount of effort.

Nevertheless, amidst this shift, one crucial condition remains: a relentless focus on results. Perhaps, in the next post, we’ll explore this aspect further.

No rush. We have time.