Being "Patient"

Patience is a virtue, long back my parents told me this and I always thought that they were right, well almost always. Every one of us must have been told this by someone or the other. I am very sure of it, if you don’t believe me then just think for a minute and try to remember. I am sure not in a very distant past you will find someone or the other telling you these words. Sometimes I think that the whole world believes in these words “Have Patience”. Thinking about this I wonder how useful or fruitful having patience is, and what is the timeline we are looking at before we say enough is enough. If you remember in Mahabharata Krishna waited till, shishupal insulted him100 times before killing him. But we are mere mortals so I think that is too long a period for us, isn’t it? Then the question remains what is the suitable period before we should think of changing the status quo. Let me make myself more clear on this, there is a concept of sunk cost in management, when should a person decide that the cost has sunk and he will never be able to recover anything. Think about it, it’s not easy to answer.
Another question is what stops him from deciding on this issue? Well this is easier to answer it’s one thing called hope. Most of the activities or endeavors are done in this world because we have hope. Hope is the biggest driving factor in this world. We work because we hope we will get desired results. But, as we already know and as Shahrukh is also telling us these days that everything happens “Haule Haule” (slowly slowly) we keep on working and hoping. The person keeps on pumping more effort in his endeavor because he hopes that positive returns are still possible. But till how long we should do this, when is the time to realize that there is no use hoping anymore.
This hope is the most exploited phenomenon, everyone since long has kept on exploiting this. Right from the early days of mankind, the leaders have exploited people by giving them hope. As the time has changed the nomenclature and the type of it has changed. Kings gave hope to the people of their kingdom in the form of reduced taxes, which were later doubled. Politicians gave it to the people of their country in the name of better amenities and facilities. In corporate world we have a special name to it, “carrot”. It’s given to all those people who suddenly realize that its enough now and their “cost” has “sunk”. These people start by making a hue and cry about their status before the seniors give them a “carrot”, now most of these people take it and go back to their “Hopeful” mode, but some of them realize that it’s of no use and quit. But again the question is, was it too late for them to quit or too early. Who can decide and how? I think in future we may find some algorithm for this or some formula to tell us whether it’s too early or too late, till then “Have patience”.