This is The Spit Bridge in Mosman, one of the most beautiful suburbs in Sydney Australia. No joke. It’s got a split personality. Every now and then it splits into half and half, one end opens in an upright position to allow boats taller than its height to go from one side to the other.
Of course, when it’s open, the traffic on the bridge has to stop and stand still until the bridge closes again which can take a while.
If you don’t mind waiting, you can simply enjoy the wonderful water view around. But if you are in hurry, you’d better pray that you don’t come across the red traffic light there as the wait can be painfully long. Once you get stuck in there, you can’t turn back. The only option is wait.
What about in life or in business, what would you do if you’re sick and tired of waiting? They say patience is a virtue, unfortunately it’s just not one of my strongest points.
2 weeks? What?! I reacted in disbelief. Well, that’s what the bookstore staff told me when I asked her how long it’ll take for this particular book to arrive. Slightly disappointed, I still went ahead and placed an order.
Once again, my patience was put to the test. Clearly I was being too overly optimistic about my capability to wait.
Well into the fifth day, I started to show a sign of impatience. No longer could I hold it, so out of desperation I rang the bookstore to find out the status of my order. You can imagine how eager I must’ve been. It was driving me wild. Not getting a satisfying answer, I thought perhaps I should try on-line.
I did. Within minutes I found a reputable on-line book retailer selling the same book. Best of all, it was “in stock”, available for shipping next day, even at a cheaper price. No time to waste, I went straight to make an order. What’s next? The book and other 2 titles arrived in just 3 days.
I know it’s still a long way away before I become a patient person. However, I can certainly do something to keep a balance.
While I’m a keen supporter of bricks and mortar stores and really want to see them survive and thrive in the ever changing market, I’ll continue turning to on-line retailers to buy items that aren’t readily available in store. With this mind, I have the best of both worlds.
Wait no more. Since patience isn’t my department, I might as well use impatience to my advantage…
Ted Tsai 