Last week my wife and I attended a Social Media conference. It was for businesses and non-profits that use social media to advertise, expand business, and spread the word(s). There were people who were wildly successful and people who were just starting out. I was there to learn how I could help our church’s ministry with online resources. My wife was there to learn ways to help her newfound business grow. What I noticed is that one has to be patient to watch risks pay off. A good number of business and projects aren’t built overnight.

To be completely honest, we’re in the “patience” phase of Tammy’s business right now. She quit her teaching job at the end of December with an eye toward starting her own thing. She was paid through the end of February. We have money saved up. But now we’re having to dip into that savings a bit.

We’re to the point where we’d really like to see the business begin to take off a bit more than it already has. Tammy asked me whether I thought it was a good idea to quit her job and take this risk. I responded that it absolutely was. She has more freedom. She’s been able to spend time with our grandson. We’ve been able to do things together that we never would have had she still been working.

We’re finding ourselves in the phase of Tammy’s business that Seth Godin calls “The Dip.” The dip is what happens when someone starts a business, a task, or a project and then doesn’t immediately experience the result that they had hoped for. The majority of people at this point quit. They can’t see their way through the dip. But those that push through often see success on the other side of the dip.

To make it through the dip requires one to be patient. It’s not easy when the money isn’t coming in or people aren’t responding to your project as you’d like. But if you keep creating, learning from mistakes, and refining on the fly, your patience will often pay off.

Patience doesn’t pay the bills, but it most certainly often pays off. Push through the dip with patience and you might just see results greater than you could have ever imagined. We’re certainly beginning to see signs that this could be true for my wife’s business. If we’re patient we might just see what’s on the other side of the dip.

What are you patiently waiting for? Can you find your way past the dip?