Success involves a lot of hard work, dedication, and struggle. When you see others’ success, you may be tempted to assume their experience was linear. It's helpful to remember that what you see is often just a fraction of their story. Giving yourself grace to make mistakes and exercising gritty patience is an important part of growth

On this week's episode of Success That Lasts, Sarah Padfield and Natalie Heacock join host Jared Siegel to discuss how important patience is to success, and why taking it slow in the present helps you go faster in the future when it comes to your career.

As a partner and the head of Delap’s assurance practice, Sarah Padfield leads the strategic direction for the firm’s evolving assurance services. She provides audit, review, and accounting services for private, closely held businesses of all sizes. Natalie Heacock, CPA, MBA, is the corporate controller at Patrick Lumber Co.

Tune in here, at delapcpa.com/podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts:

Here are a few highlights:

  • “There are a lot of different textures to our identity,” Jared comments. “Who we are at the office is just another mask we wear.”
  • Overnight success isn’t a thing, Sarah remarks. Success involves a lot of hard work, dedication, and struggle. When you see others’ success, you may be tempted to assume their experience was linear, but what you see is often just a fraction of their story. She shares some background into her professional development and explains why giving yourself grace to make mistakes promotes growth.
  • It’s easy to get wrapped up in your anxiety and apprehension of the future. While having a strategy is good, worrying about things outside your control doesn’t solve anything, Natalie advises.
  • Natalie and Sarah talk about how relationships influence career development. According to Natalie, mentors are people you interact with every day and have friendships with. Additionally, they are those you look up to, whose work and ideas you study and implement into your daily life. Sarah shares how hearing other people’s stories have helped her.
  • Jared encourages listeners to take time to show their gratitude for the people who have impacted them along the way. “It’s easy to be impacted by somebody and forget to tell them,” he says. Gratitude requires intentionality.
  • Jared asks Sarah how she juggles the various responsibilities that come with her various roles as a leader, a mother, and a wife. Sarah says that learning when to say no and how to depend on others is what helps her manage her responsibilities. “Every yes is a no somewhere else,” Jared adds. Natalie shares her framework for identifying what to say no to and briefly talks about why it matters.
  • Things don’t get easier as time goes on. New challenges and struggles will always present themselves, but they offer with them the opportunity for constant growth.

Resources

Brene Brown

How I Built This, a podcast with Guy Raz

Think Again by Adam Grant