Many people never achieve success not because they are not motivated or lack important resources. Instead, they fail to understand that success takes time and overnight success is a gamble. People start something and complain about how they are not successful 3 or 6 months later.
A big mistake others make is to compare their 3 months’ work with someone else 10 years of hard work. In three or six months, you cannot achieve meaningful results (subject to what you are working on). You just got started and are trying to figure out how things work. The difference between you and someone with 10 years of hard work is that they have built great products, won the market, have competitive advantages, and built a great team around their products. On top of that, they have customers ready to buy.
A wise man once said, “It takes many years of hard work to become an overnight success.”
There are many factors that will affect your success. Working hard, discipline, consistency, and many more will all affect your success level. These habits work for everyone who wants to achieve success. However, there is another equally important element we should not ignore which is TIME.
Real success takes time. Time gives you a chance to improve your products, become better at what you do, learn about the market, evaluate your competitor’s weaknesses, etc. In other words, time is everything.
In this article, I will show you exactly why success takes time and why you should be patient if you have not reached success yet. Without further ado, let’s get started.
1. Time helps you correct your mistakes and design great products
It is almost impossible to start something and make it perfect overnight or without failing. If that happens, then it will be what some people call, “striking luck.”
When it comes to success, however, luck is not part of the equation. You cannot rely on luck if you want to achieve long-term success.
Success is a result of hard work and persistence. On your path to success, you will make a lot of mistakes and that is OK. As you make these mistakes and correct them, you will be getting closer to success.
For every mistake you make, a lesson is learned. That is it is unlikely that you will repeat the same mistakes unless, of course, you are not learning from them. This process will help you correct those mistakes, reevaluate your processes, and make some modifications to your products.
Eventually, you will end up with a great and hard-to-beat product.
Another great reason why success takes time is that new inventions are made every single day. Once the right invention is made in your area of focus, you can then use that invention to put a final touch on your product.
For example, when iPhone was first invented, it was incredible and a game-changer. However, that same iPhone cannot be compared to new models being released today. New inventions have been made over time which allowed the mobile phone industry to be revolutionalized to what you know today.
Before you rush your designs, products, or services, remember that real success takes time. Keep on improving what you are making now, make mistakes, correct them, and repeat. That is how it is done.
2. Time gives you a chance to adapt to changes
We are no longer in an early human era where nothing happened for a long time. In today’s time, new inventions are being made every single day and others are being obsolete.
Nothing lasts longer in a world where things are moving at the speed of light. This means that if you are a business owner or have a product or service you sell, your success will depend on your ability to adapt to new changes.
You need to cope with changes, use new technology, and get rid of old ones. That is how it works. A good example is the rise of Amazon.
Before, Amazon, physical retail stores were a big thing. At the same time, online shopping was non-existent. Then, amazon changed everything and the competition became intense. Many retail stores went bankrupt and others had to adapt to new changes. Giant retail stores like Walmart find themselves falling behind, losing sales, and struggling to adapt.
The point here is that time gives you a chance to adapt to new changes. Walmart had physical infrastructure but its online presence was not that great. However, it was able to build online infrastructure and compete with Amazon over time.
Real changes take time and time heals everything. At the same time, time kills things as well.
If you are not learning a new skill, you are losing one and falling behind.
Adapting to changes does not only apply to businesses. Everything in the world must cope with changes including you who is reading this article today.
What you know today will be obsolete tomorrow. When new inventions are made, they come with new rules, new software to run them, and new standards. As an individual, you must continuously learn new things in your area of focus. For example, if you are a software engineer, you must learn new languages.
This is because new technologies do not necessarily rely on old infrastructure. At the same time, old infrastructure cannot support all new inventions.
Think of drone technologies. Now drones can do anything. They are being used in package transportation and deliveries, area mapping, wars, etc. That means that new map technologies that fit drone specifications must be built. If there is no technology that supports new inventions, you must build new technologies.
At the same time, if you were an employee in that area, you must learn that new technology to stay ahead.
What you should know, however, is that you cannot learn everything overnight. It will take time to learn and apply what you learn. If you are starting out and feel lost, don’t give up. You will get there. This is because real success takes time.
3. Success requires loyalty and that comes with time
One mistake many people and companies make is to assume that they will win their customers’ trust in a single day. No, it does not work that way.
If you are designing a new product, you must educate your customers about it, get their feedback, and redesign the same product to meet your customer’s demands. Remember? Your customers decide what they want.
But, if you think you will make them want your product, then you are going to have a long and bumpy road ahead of you. So, it takes time to win your customer’s trust and loyalty. You cannot achieve that overnight.
Even if you are designing a product that customers want, you are not the only one who is doing it. The internet has made it easy to a level where anyone from anywhere can become a business owner and have customers all over the world. So, your competition has grown exponentially and you must allow yourself enough time to recruit and retain new customers.
It takes time to steal customers from your competitors and keep them. What is it that you are doing better than your competitors? You need to give your customers a reason to switch and do some convincing.
Before, you launch your product, make peace with yourself that success takes time. No the other way around.
4. It takes time to be trusted
In a world where for every good product, there are countless fake ones, it is really hard to gain trust from people. You cannot start a business now and expect to have millions of customers the next day.
Nobody knows that you exist and those who do, do not think that you are serious. People don’t know if your products have good quality or if you deserve their money.
You cannot expect anyone to give you their hard-earned money simply because you have a cool design. People need proof. When buying a product they never tried before, people do research, read reviews online, and talk to anyone they know who used the same product.
Customers do their homework to avoid throwing away their money.
Getting these reviews takes time and patience. You cannot expect a lot of good reviews overnight. Even if you do, people will still not trust your brand.
Long-term success takes time. The longer you stay in business, the more people will buy your products and services. This in return will earn you organic reviews and customers and eventually, success.
