Patience, The Most Valuable Commodity

_{source: Fine Art America}

Value is the concept that manifests itself when a group of people decide to compare one thing with another. Although it has a highly speculative nature, it can be transferred, exchanged or destroyed. All human endeavors entail at least some aspect of value. Nonetheless, the virtue of patience stands diachronically as the mother of all value (whether that is social, intellectual or financial).

Now, I am not going to bother you with technicalities about short term and long term valuations. Let's just say that the most traditional form of valuation is the small interest we receive by letting money sit in our bank account. The percentage we generate is small but it carries less risk due to its long term leverage. On the other hand, if we invest in some high risk - high reward stocks (that probably shady uncle Bob suggested), we run into the danger of losing our money. This is how patience generates value for one while the opposite takes it away.

Human societies have been increasing capital since the dawn of civilization. Thing is, most us are not good with capital valuation because we are impatient. Our lives are too short and our emotions volatile. When we are presented with an opportunity we prefer to take what’s on the table and run away rather than have patience and let value grow.

Whether we talk about intellectual or social values the same principle of patience applies. If we wait and let all those volumes of information fill our brains, our intellect will increase in time. It might not be a linear growth but it will increase. Same applies to social value. Good friends are build over time and that requires immense amounts of patience in order to really get to know and bond with someone.

It might not be clear yet, but in regards to blockchain technologies long term investors have the upper hand. Part of the reason is that the cryptosphere has traditionally attracted short-term speculators with some form of gambling background. Although some of them might have been favored when the volume was relatively low, in a bull market they end up working for the patience long-term players. It is no wonder that most flipity-flippers used to have thousands of Bitcoin and/or Ethereum but ended up trading them for a quick buck. They would be retired by now if they had self-restraint.

Patience is a very peculiar virtue to master because it involves emotional maturity. Impatient people are often superstitious, fearful and unstable, ending up making the same mistakes over and over again. The emotional vicious cycle keeps them trapped in their own addictions. Patience also goes against our very nature since humans are not designed to be rational but rather instinctual. Children are impatient for the very reason that they can’t contain their emotions. The environment overwhelms them due to inexperience. Unfortunately, most people never grow up and maintain the same pattern as small children.

Anxiety is believed to be the plague of modern civilization. I believe part of the reason is that we want to tip our finger to everything around us... yesterday. As a result our bodies retaliate against us. A panic attack after all is nothing other than the mind running ahead from the body. Impatience in all its glory.

I would suggest to anyone to try and do everything in their power to cultivate the virtue of patience. It is quite hard to master since modern society requires individuals that are on a constant state of flux. We are all riddled with FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) for just about everything. Assuming that civilization won’t collapse anytime soon, those who can champion patience are guaranteed to have an edge over their restless peers.