Jeff Parker States Importance of Gaining Professional Experience and Having Patience

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Transcript

Parker27_Patience

The fact that I didn't jump into a business right out of college, the fact that I actually spent a decade gathering experience before I made that jump, in hindsight was the right thing to do. The fact that I've created businesses that really are worried about revenues and sales in hindsight was the right thing to do. Now, they were sort of natural to me, and they might not have been natural to another person. So, as I mentor people, one of the very first things I try to tell them, which I should be telling myself sometimes, "Have some patience here," right? It will happen, you know. Have a positive attitude. You know, realize that that first job is not going to be the be-all and end-all. Realize that that first boss may not be that most wonderful person in your whole life, and, in fact, you might not even like that person. And look at that job as an opportunity to learn and to gather a set of experiences. And so, it's about attitude in my mind. How that positive attitude, that you're in control of you and that you're going to absorb and you're going to take away everything you possibly can take away from this experience set so that it builds on the next one. And just be patient to spot that idea. Because if you really think about it, starting businesses is dangerous. That is, only one in a certain number make it. I don't know if it's one out of 100 or one out of 22, but it's not one out of one. So, you have to pick your spot and realize that if you do this and fail and you do it again and fail, that it's not going to be a very happy experience. So, you want to pick your spot and you want to know that you're filling a hole that you really do have some experience to fill. So, I think it's that patience, learning and attitude. And also what I would say, put together a set of objectives: Where do you want to be? Where do you think you want to be in 10 years, and how do you think you're going to get there? So, work on that on that path, and do it with a sense of urgency. You know, that's the other thing I guess I find. I find people put off what they want to do, right? In business, you don't do that. You know, we have monthly sales goals. You know, we have a board that posts our sales every day. We know how we're doing every single day. We create this sense of excitement, this sense of urgency. We don't have a lot of time, so we've got to do what we're going to do, and we've got to do it now. So, I think on the one side be patient with respect to when you jump, but be impatient with getting the job done and doing it with an attitude that says, "I'm in control, and I'm going to take a learning experience from this."