By Shane Breslin

“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
― Benjamin Franklin

Here are two things that I do every day.

• I make my bed
• I brush my teeth

Here are two other things that I also do every day.

• I listen to podcasts
• I engage on Twitter

This week, listening to podcasts and checking in on Twitter, I was struck by a common theme that ran through pronouncements from two people I admire greatly, but who we might usually think of as being poles apart: His Holiness the Dalai Lama and foul-mouthed modern communications kingpin Gary Vaynerchuk.

The Dalai Lama will probably not be negotiating seven-figure deals with sports stars or media brands any time soon, while Gary Vee is unlikely to be leading any spiritual retreats – at least not before he buys the Jets.

But cut through the tone and drill down to the content, and you might find a lot of common ground.

On Monday the Dalai Lama tweeted about patience, while Vaynerchuk was a guest on Lewis Howes’s School of Greatness podcast.

Here’s what they had to say about the subject of “patience”.

The Dalai Lama

Many people think that patience is a sign of weakness. I think this is a mistake. It is anger that is a sign of weakness, whereas patience is a sign of strength.

— Dalai Lama (@DalaiLama) January 29, 2018

Gary Vaynerchuk

It is the disease of our society, The lack of patience, bro. Patience and insecurity are 90% of the unlock for everyone listening. Their mom shitted on them their whole life and said they’re going to be a loser, so they believe it. Coz that’s what parenting is.

And they just want to have a Maserati now, and they’ll do whatever it takes to do it.

Do you know how many kids are doing something smart, like doing a good retail arbitrage on Amazon right now and making $100,000 by buying on Alibaba and selling on Amazon. Took a year and a half, three years to get good at it. Now [they’re] taking every profit and buying some random cryptocurrency because they’re playing the Lotto!

We have to have these conversations.

There’s a kid who spent three years being disciplined and getting good at retail arbitrage. That’s a real skill, to have an eye for what to buy in China, how to set up on Amazon properly, how to run ads, it’s a skill! They did it for three years meticulously, they made $13,000, then $47,000, now they’re finally making $300,000 and they could be on their way to 10 million.

Yet, they’ve chosen to kind of stop. Jump on the short-term bandwagon of buying some weird cryptocurrency, hoping it’s the next Bitcoin or Ethereum. I’m seeing that every day, and it’s being predicated on short-term … The ‘follow the leader’ shit, completely predicated on short-term.

Patience is, I believe, a core element of happiness.

This post is part of my Happiness Project.

I send two regular emails: a Happiness Bulletin every Saturday morning, and a slightly longer, deeper newsletter on the theme of happiness on the first Friday of every month.

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