[Shin Sujeong's Work Dignity] It's Not a Lack of Patience

A young man came to see me. He is a very intelligent and excellent individual currently in a doctoral program after working in the corporate world. He shared his concerns with me.

"I lack perseverance. I start writing papers but stop after a little while. I begin exercising but quit soon. I’m supposed to read economic newspapers daily, but I can’t keep it up. I need to read and write regularly, but I fail to maintain that too. My friends are doing well in startups, so I feel like I should prepare for starting a business. I also think I should look into career options after my degree, but I only pay attention briefly and then stop. It’s a big problem. How can I improve my perseverance?"

After listening carefully, I realized he wasn’t lacking perseverance. Most ordinary people have about that level of perseverance. So it was hard to say he was especially lacking in it.

I said, "It’s difficult for anyone except very determined or habitual people to persistently pursue many things at once. That doesn’t seem to be the real problem here." Then he replied in surprise, "You mean my perseverance isn’t a big problem?"

I asked, "Are you easily influenced by others?" He answered, "How did you know that?"

"From what I see, it’s not that you lack perseverance, but that you have too many things that seem like you have to do them. Someone tells you to read the economic newspaper, so you feel you must do that. Someone says you have to write daily to improve, so you feel you must write. You think you have to read, exercise, find a job later, prepare for startups because your friends are succeeding... Because of this, you start one thing but get anxious and switch to another, then get anxious again and move on to something else," I explained. He then understood what his real problem was. I said, "Simplify. Choose just one most important thing, or at most three. Focus on those first. Don’t worry about the rest; you can do them after you finish these." He found his answer and left.

Not long ago, I met an HR expert who joined a promising venture company. The company has grown very fast and now has nearly 200 employees. I asked him what change was most effective. He said, "When I joined, they used a tool called OKR for goal setting. It’s a very good tool. But all employees set more than 10 goals each. With so many goals, no one knew what was truly important. So I suggested to the CEO that we set just one or two really important goals first, and once those were achieved, move on to others. That was effective."

Steel magnate Carnegie once met a consultant named Taylor and skeptically said, "If you tell me something worth listening to, I’ll give you $10,000 right away." Taylor replied, "List the ten most important things you can do, and do them one by one starting from number one."

Carnegie immediately paid the $10,000. While lack of focus and perseverance can be an issue, often people fail to do anything properly because they spread themselves too thin and feel pressured to do everything. Complete the prioritized tasks first. Then, as you build habits, expand to new things. Finding the real problem brings the real solution.

Shin Sujeong, Head of KT Enterprise Division