Be Patient and Persistent

I love asking pro athletes this question:

“What do you wish you knew when you first started?”

A lot of them say something along the lines of, “I wish I had more fun,” or “I wish I didn’t put so much pressure on myself.”

That always stands out to me.

But I’ve noticed they rarely say, “I wish I didn’t work so hard,” or “I wish I didn’t spend so much time on it.”

Because even if their career didn’t go exactly how they planned, the time they put in still mattered. The work shaped them. The habits they built through sports translated into other parts of their life.

Work ethic. Teamwork. Problem-solving. Handling failure. Showing up when things aren’t easy.

Those things matter everywhere.

Recently, someone asked me a similar question:

“What is something you wish you had known when you first started your journey in baseball and media?”

When I thought about it, I’d probably say patience.

There have been a lot of things I wanted to happen that didn’t happen as quickly as I thought they would. Some goals took longer than I expected. Some opportunities didn’t come when I hoped they would. And sometimes, I wondered if they were ever going to happen at all.

But looking back, some of them did happen.

They just took longer than I thought.

That’s been one of the biggest lessons for me. Just because something isn’t happening right now doesn’t mean it never will.

I’ve had to learn how to be patient and persistent at the same time. That’s not always easy. Patience can feel like waiting around, and persistence can feel like trying to force something. But I think the balance is continuing to show up, continuing to get better, and not quitting just because the timeline looks different than you expected.

Special things have happened in my journey.

Not overnight.

Not always as quickly as I imagined.

But they have happened.

So if you’re working toward something and it feels like it’s taking longer than it should, don’t take that as a sign that it’s not going to happen.

Keep going. Keep learning. Keep showing up.

Be patient, but don’t stop being persistent.

Just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it never will.