This is longer than usual, but we are addressing two important issues… patience and persistence. They may seem contradictory, but they go hand in hand.
We live in a world of instant gratification. In some cases, when it happens it is great, but in many cases patience is truly a virtue.
Paraphrasing cricket player Rahul Dravid:
“…You can take a Chinese bamboo seed and plant it in the ground, water and nurture the seed for an entire year and not even see a single sprout. In fact, you will not see a sprout for five years. But suddenly, a tiny shoot will spring from the ground. Over the next six weeks, the plant can grow as tall as 90 feet. It can grow as fast as 39 inches every 24 hours. You can literally watch the plant growth.
What was the plant doing those five years? It was growing its roots. For five full years it was preparing itself for a rapid, full growth. Without this root structure, the plant simply couldn’t support itself for the future growth. Some would say the plant grew 90 feet in six weeks, I would say it’s grew 90 feet in five years and six weeks.”
Patience allows us to lay a solid foundation… At J2, we have done this well. We are perfectly poised for even faster growth.
We have a great team, we are building a great culture, we need to continue to be persistent in everything we do.
Sales statistics show the following…
48% of sales people never follow-up with a prospect
25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop
Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts
2% of sales are made on the first contact
3% of sales are made on the second contact
5% of sales are made on the third contact
10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact
The same applies to recruiting—and I am pretty sure it applies to most things. We must pay our dues. We must be persistent.
Be patient and persistent and good things will happen.
More information on being patient.
More information on being persistent.
Thank you, Chase, for the quote from Rahul and the idea. Let me know if there is a topic you would like to know more about or something you would like to share.
Have a great weekend.
—Vijay
About Friday Food for Thought (FFfT)
I frequently attend conferences and retreats on entrepreneurship and leadership and while I am away, the J2 team picks up the slack, allowing me to learn to be better at what I do. I wanted to share what I was learning with my team, so I created the weekly FFfT emails in November of 2015 and have been writing them ever since.
Before long, the J2 staff began sharing the FFfT emails with their friends and family and now other leaders have asked to be included, which led to the creation of this newsletter. I hope you enjoy!