We all play waiting games! Sometimes, delay is employed as a strategy to gain advantage over someone who is desperate. For instance, in the sphere of romance, when a lady is approached, she delays her response to determine the seriousness of the potential lover. She keeps the guy waiting to see if he would tarry and patiently wait until she has evaluated the body language of the guy, his attitude, temperament, etc, before she gives a reply. This cat-and-mouse game is sometimes worth the effort.
It is foolish to plunge into a relationship without checking out the potential partner, whether in romance, business, or politics, in fact, any interaction, no matter how casual.
When seasoned business people get a proposal, they take time to study it. They check out all the ramifications. In other words, they play the waiting game. Sometimes, things are not the way they seem to be. Not every cloudy sky produces a shower. Appearances may be deceptive. So, how do you find out the real motive behind an action;, a proposition, or overture? You wait a little, or sometimes for a long time, to allow the euphoria of the moment wear out. Then you have the emotional balance, the dispassionate judgement to evaluate the proposal and arrive at an objective decision.
In business, you must know when to play the waiting game to your advantage. Consider this scenario: someone is desperate to sell, you are not under pressure to buy. The wise thing to do here is to buy cheap by driving a hard bargain. You dilly-dally by waiting for the breaking point when the seller could accept your crazy offer. While waiting, you check out the product carefully to ascertain the quality and find out why it is being sold so cheap, before closing the deal. If you finally succeed in buying cheap, you have won the waiting game.
If you want to succeed, you must be a ruthless finisher, without being callous. All is fair in war and business! The world only knows winners!! Just make sure you win fair and square. You can’t be rich or successful without taking advantage of someone, something or some situations. That applies to romance, business, politics, war, you name it. The waiting game does not nullify the imperative of timing your response. Rather, it is a variant of right timing.
Every rule has an exception. You don’t wait when confronted by a clear and present danger. Your flight-or-fight in-built instinct reacts appropriately, depending on the situation at play. The waiting game does not apply when swift response is required. You only play the waiting game to take an advantage when it is sensible to do so.
Everyone knows that pressure induces compromise, especially to the weak-willed or unprincipled. That’s why a married woman commits adultery because she is financially challenged, and a man steals because he has no job. These ones can’t wait a while to allow bad times pass, not knowing that tough times don’t last, only tough people do. The inability to wait or endure adversity drives men to ruin. If you can just wait a little, you can experience a turnaround. That lady or man of your dream may just emerge, and that ideal job or business may surface. If only you can wait! This is another dimension of the waiting game: patience.
The flipside of the waiting game is that you don’t have to sell cheap if only you can wait a little. You don’t have to get involved in sexual immorality because you are broke. If only you can tarry for a while, the hard times will surely pass. There is no permanent winter of discontent; it is just a season. Learn to wait patiently like the dog, which knows how to wait for the fattest bone. You must realise that decisions made under duress can be dangerous. You may pay for it with your life.
Patience is a virtue. I wish I knew this all along. If you just hang on for a little while, success may come your way. Most people fail because they do not wait long enough for their season. So, they fall prey to those whose time is ripe. This waiting game requires great wisdom because you must know how to strike a balance. You should know when to react after you have waited. Some people wait too long and great opportunities pass them by. If waiting doesn’t give you any advantage, it makes no sense. The whole essence of having to wait is to get you some advantage. Even patience must have a limit.
A lady in search of a man should know how long to wait when approached by a man before saying yes or no. if she waits for too long, she could wear out the guy’s patience and lose him. If you want to buy cheap from a desperate seller, don’t play the Shylock by stretching the patience of the seller to unbearable limit. They could simply call your bluff and walk away. No theory is ironclad. You need some level of predatory instincts to know when to strike without missing, like the python.
Weekend Spice: All that we are is a result of what we have thought – Buddha
•Ayodeji is an author, rights activist, pastor and life coach. He can be reached on 09059243004 (SMS and WhatsApp only).