–By Jan McInnis, Comedian and Keynote Speaker
When I was a kid growing up in northern Virginia, we usually took our family vacations to visit either my dad’s family in Repton, Alabama or my mom’s family in Ithaca, Michigan. One summer was a bit challenging as our one car had a problem with the starter (and this was way back in the one-car-only family days).
It would crank up and drive fine if you had someone push it to get it started. My grandfather in Alabama told my dad that if he could get the car to his farm, then Grandad could fix it. Grandad had patience: this is the guy who could take apart a tractor piece by piece, lay it all out, find the problem, and then reconstruct it perfectly. As my dad was contemplating this drive, I remember thinking in my little child’s brain, “We’re going south, so it’s downhill. Shouldn’t we be able to coast most of the way? Pushing is for uphill to Michigan, right?” I was very young, and really didn’t get that north and south do not mean literally up and down. My parents decided to go for it and we had a memorable road trip in which we’d drive a few hundred miles, stop for gas, ask for a push, and repeat for 20 hours. We got help at each station stop and made it to Grandad’s, where he did in fact fix the car.
I’m not shocked that Grandad made the repair. I’m more shocked that two hours into the trip, my dad, who wasn’t known for his patience, didn’t pull into a car dealership and buy another one. The gas-station-push wasn’t his style.
As an adult who has inherited his “impatience gene,” I continually hear about the virtue of patience. You patient people get all the kudos for being understanding toward the rest of us, but I think we forget that all sorts of good things have come from those of us who can’t wait. First off, you can thank us for the invention of the Disney fast pass. Do you think they’d have come up with it if everyone was fine with standing in line for eight hours to ride Space Mountain? Doubtful! And in fact, I think much of our actual space exploration came about because we lacked the patience to let other countries get there first.
Technology in general keeps evolving because we’re impatient. I bet Alexander Graham Bell’s mother-in-law was the impatient woman behind the invention of the telephone. She didn’t feel like saddling up a horse every time she wanted to chat with her daughter, so maybe Alex was bugged enough to figure out a solution. And, in fact, our phones continue evolving due to our impatience. In mere seconds, we can search for a number for practically any business and call it. (A tip for business owners, though: just don’t make your phone number spell a word. We found out quickly that nobody has the patience to figure out the number that corresponds to the letter of the word that will reveal the full number.) And other technology like Facebook, caught on when we realized that we can keep up with dozens of our friends at once! Suddenly, calling people one at a time felt too slow.
Impatience can give your career a boost. I’ve met many up-and-coming comics throughout my 20+ year career who wanted to become full-time comedians. Years later, some of those people are still patiently preparing to quit their day job. Impatient people take a leap and see where we land. If we land in a bad place, we know we’re too impatient to stay there. . . we’ll fix the situation fast.
And of course medicine has also gotten more funding because of our impatience. There’s a walk, run, or rally for practically every kind of disease, so we can speed along the cure. If I participate in one more walk for the cure, I’m gonna need someone to find a cure for blisters. But sitting at home writing a check feels too slow. Walking raises money, and it feels like we’re actually doing something because we’re moving around. Moving around is good for impatient people.
So next time you see someone who appears impatient with a situation, remember that they might be finding a cure, inventing a new technology, or reinventing their career. Fifty plus years ago, my dad did not want to wait for a mechanic to fix the car: he wanted to go on vacation now! So embrace your impatience! Whether it’s to a farm in Repton, Alabama or wherever you want to go, impatience may just get you there!
<em>About the author. . . comedian, keynote speaker, and comedy writer Jan McInnis has shared her customized humor keynotes with thousands of associations and corporations. She is also the author of “<u>Finding the Funny FAST; How To Create Quick Humor To Connect With Clients, Coworkers And Crowds</u>,” and “<u>Convention Comedian: Stories and Wisdom From Two Decades of Chicken Dinners and Comedy Clubs.”</u> Jan was featured in the <u>Wall Street Journal</u>, the <u>Washington Post</u>, and the <u>Huffington Post</u> for her clean humor. From a recent client: </em><em>”Thank you Jan. You were a HIT! It was a good conference and you capped it up for us perfectly.”</em>
