We know from records that the ancients believed in incremental learning, as we do in our era. The length of time for formal education requires concentrated years that delay other valued experiences in students’ daily lives. Recognizing the time factor in education is helpful. The recognition itself can serve to speed up the incremental process, in that persons may refuse to act, regarding factors over which they have influence. A bit more can be drawn from each day for disciplined persons, when they recognize they have some control over the speed of various life processes, including intellectual growth – a vital factor for collegians taking several years to speed up their learning curves. This may happen for those completing a four years college program in three. None of this denies that it does take time to absorb experience. Each person ought to measure tolerances in various ways to evaluation and decision making in life. Time factors contribute, and boundaries of personal nature make another. What is fast for one may be slow for another. Failure in time planning may detour persons into unsuitable choices for anything.
Maturity, for example, does come more quickly in time for some than for others. The differences are often accounted for in concentration patterns, although there are other factors that speed up or slow down the process development. It is usually presumed that maturity is worth it for us to endure the cost of waiting through the transitional period and development factors leading to it. That may or may not be the case. The extrovert, the pusher, may or may not be ahead of the introvert, the plugger-through. At this writing there is discussion about the kind of leadership provided in much of the economic world. Populations are going through a lengthy downturn in economies. Some analysts point out that when the banking leadership of the 1920s, and the 1980s-90s was dynamic and pushing, the consequences contributed to the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the decline in the early years of the new 21st century. I recall, on two occasions, wanting to purchase shares of two companies. I was advised by knowledgeable friends in the business that I did not want to buy such boring stocks. These other ones were more exciting, likely to provide greater dividends – ultimately. I now wish I had pressed forward my own opinion. The stocks
I liked proved to be profitable, and I didn’t own them. I could easily take the boring epithet for the performance of the less dramatic stock. Current articles argue for bankers who are boring in that they make loans with background collateral, and follow in the rules of addition and subtraction more than multiplication and division. They are fortified against the greed factor in the human psyche. They use time to advantage, perhaps looking for a common rhythm in business. A recent failure will be a classic failure reference – when Facebook was offered in the market at $39.00 a share. Within a few weeks the stock was worth half that amount. Billions of dollars were lost in trades, a monumental I. P. O. failure.
The above does not deny that there are the high flyers – as Facebook became for those who held the stock more than a year after the clumsy beginning. There are persons who have the nature, and the talent for risk. They need others to control the engines, to moderate the speed, to avoid excess that leads to chaos. They can, if they are self-disciplined and dependent become effective in leadership. Their celebrity may serve for success. This may characterize some ministers of churches. Those succeeding in the accumulations of years that extend beyond them are dependent upon the teams they build, the counsel they can follow, the continuance of their achievements in others. Jesus used disciples in a world of nature. None had his resources, except as Jesus would provide them. He noted they would need the Holy Spirit to sustain them for ministry. He empowered them. Some, like Peter, John, and Paul moved faster than the others. Both were needed. The human personality needs surrender to God for success, shown in prayer and dependence upon discipleship in self and others. We must be alert to those few life events that move us forward at a pace we have not found in usual life patterns. When they occur, embrace them, but wisely take a mature approach to seal the gains in a spirit of faithfulness to manage well. Persons receiving windfalls, as in an inheritance, often lose that blessing in prodigal management. Maturity takes thought and draws on wisdom and time planning. The process, so deliberate, may succeed as if suddenly. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020