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Making Peace With Slow Progress: A Myth or a Must?

We all feel it. That itch. That nagging feeling that things aren’t moving fast enough. In a world saturated with social media feeds of 20-year-old millionaires and overnight success stories, the pressure to achieve more, faster, is immense. This constant urgency can make steady, incremental growth feel like a failure. It can make slow progress feel like no progress at all.

But is our impatience a virtue that pushes us to greatness, or a vulnerability that sets us up for a fall? On the podcast, we got real about the frustrations and temptations that come with wanting to skip the line and leapfrog to the next level.

When The "Midas Touch" Burns You

For an entrepreneur, the siren song of rapid scaling is hard to ignore. Tosin shared a powerful story about this very temptation. After starting his CPA firm and growing it organically, he discovered a powerful growth lever: acquiring other firms. A few successful, smaller acquisitions made him feel like he had the "Midas touch."

That confidence led him to a much larger, more expensive acquisition. The numbers looked good, and the potential was intoxicating. "This company can take you to the scale that you've always been looking for," he told himself. "This acquisition now will take you maybe cut [a 10-year race] down to two years."

The allure of that shortcut was so loud it drowned out the quiet voice of caution. As he learned the hard way, not all that glitters is gold. The massive leap, fueled by impatience with organic growth, didn't pan out as expected. It was an expensive lesson from the school of hard knocks, leading to one of his biggest takeaways for fellow entrepreneurs: "Never bet the whole business."

Taking calculated risks is essential, but there’s a difference between a calculated risk and a gamble that could wipe you out. The pressure to speed up your journey can blind you to the very real possibility of a crash.

"Slow Progress" in a Corporate Career: Stuck or Strategic?

The frustration with slow progress isn’t just an entrepreneur’s game. As Korede shared, it can feel even more personal when you’re an employee. You put in the work, you hit your deadlines, you’re dependable, but the desired promotion or recognition remains out of reach. Meanwhile, you see others around you getting ahead.

"All your efforts are visible by you, but the outcome is controlled by others," Korede pointed out. In his own story, that frustration led him to leave a job for a new role with more responsibility. The problem? He moved too fast. Once he was in the new position, he realized he didn’t have the leadership or decision-making skills required. He had relied on the support system of his previous role more than he knew.

"I realized that that job was so critical for me because it was my training ground," he reflected. "I didn't complete my training."

This led to a crucial insight. You have to honestly assess the season you’re in. Are you in a season of acquisition or a season of advancement? A season of acquisition is about learning, building relationships, and gathering the skills you need for the next level. It’s the essential groundwork. If you try to leap to advancement before that work is done, you’re likely to falter. Making peace with this "slower" season isn’t being complacent; it’s being strategic.

The Hindsight Shortcut: Borrowing Wisdom

So how do you tell the difference between a necessary season of learning and a genuine dead end? How do you know when to be patient versus when to make a bold move?

As Allen noted, we often fall into the trap of comparing our chapter one to someone else’s chapter twenty. He shared the story of a friend trying to rapidly scale his dental practice to match a colleague who had been in the game for nearly two decades. His friend was ignoring the 10-12 years of foundational work the other guy put in to crack the code.

The truth is, you don't know what you don't know. We get so emotional and locked into our dreams that we ignore the potential negatives. This is where a trusted voice of reason—a mentor—becomes invaluable. They can ask the hard questions: If this fails, what does that look like? Are you truly okay with the worst-case scenario?

Ultimately, you can’t see the future. Any big leap is a risk. But you can mitigate that risk by seeking counsel from people who have been where you’re trying to go. As Allen perfectly put it, "The biggest shortcut to hindsight is find someone who's been there. So you borrow their hindsight."

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Whether you’re building a business or climbing the corporate ladder, the tension between patience and ambition is real. It’s not about choosing one over the other, but learning to balance them. It’s about building a solid foundation, understanding the true nature of risk, and knowing when to wait and when to jump.

For the full, candid conversation, including what happened with Tosin’s "Midas touch" deal, check out the full episode on YouTube. And for more honest chats about business, career, and life, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter. '''