What is the relationship between wealth and "patience"?

Okay, let's talk about this topic.

Many people believe wealth is built on "smarts," "luck," or "making bold decisions." While these factors play a role, over the long term, you'll find that those who build lasting, stable wealth almost always share one fundamental trait: Patience.

Wealth and patience could be seen as twin brothers. Their relationship can be understood on these levels:

1. Patience Makes the "Miracle" of Compounding Work

You've surely heard of "compounding," hailed even by Einstein as the eighth wonder of the world. Simply put, it's "money making money."

For example:

The Impatient Person: He has a principal of ¥10,000. He earns 10% this year (¥1,000). Feeling it's too slow, he spends that ¥1,000. Next year, his principal is still ¥10,000.
The Patient Person: He also has ¥10,000 principal. He earns 10% this year (¥1,000). He leaves it invested, so the ¥1,000 becomes new principal. Next year, his principal is ¥11,000. Earning another 10%, he makes ¥1,100.

The difference seems small? But stretch it over 30 or 40 years, and the gap becomes astronomical. Compounding is like a snowball. It starts small and rolls slowly; you need patience to keep pushing it. But if the hill is long enough (i.e., time is long enough), the snowball grows bigger and bigger. Eventually, it becomes so large it propels itself forward.

Time is the most critical fuel for the compounding machine, and patience is the act of consistently adding that fuel.

2. Patience Helps You Avoid the Biggest "Traps"

The biggest enemies on the road to investment and wealth-building aren't "Mr. Market," but rather our own internal "fear" and "greed."

Greed: Seeing others profit from stocks or crypto triggers impulsive actions – chasing highs and selling lows, hoping for overnight riches. The result is often buying at peaks and being "left holding the bag."
Fear: A little market turbulence, like a stock crash, triggers panic selling, often selling at the very bottom, perfectly missing the subsequent rebound.

What is patience? It’s stability. It allows you to remain calm when others are euphoric (greedy) and to see opportunity when others panic (fearful). It enables you to stick to your investment discipline and not be led astray by market sentiment.

Think about Warren Buffett. His status as the "Oracle of Omaha" doesn't come from perfectly timing market lows and highs. It comes from his decades-long adherence to his value investing principles: buying good companies and holding them for the long term. That persistence is patience.

3. Patience Lets You Build True "Assets"

Naval Ravikant has an important view: Wealth is assets that earn money for you while you sleep.

Most of us earn money by exchanging our time – like getting a salary. This is active income; it stops when we stop working.

True wealth, however, comes from truly passive income generated by your "assets." These assets can be:

An automated business
Rental property generating ongoing income
An appreciating stock portfolio
A book, song, or course generating royalty income
An influential personal brand

Look at that list. Which of these things can be built quickly? None.

Creating a business, writing a book, building a brand, learning and mastering investing... all require significant upfront investment and may show little to no return for a very long time. This process severely tests patience. Impatient people abandon ship during the most tedious "foundation-laying" phase.

Patience is the bridge that takes you from "trading time for money" to "using assets to make money."

In Summary

So, what exactly is the relationship between wealth and patience?

The wealth growth curve isn't a straight line; it's a "J-curve." It's frustratingly flat in the early stages. Only the patient can endure that long "plateau period" to reach the subsequent exponential growth phase.
Patience isn't passive waiting; it's persistently doing the right things once you've identified the correct direction (like continuous learning, dollar-cost averaging persistently, consistently building your assets) and then letting time take care of the results.

For ordinary people like us, to build wealth, rather than seeking the next "get-rich-quick scheme," it's more effective to cultivate our own "patience." Buy quality assets, and then like a farmer, water and nurture them, quietly waiting for them to bloom and bear fruit.

Doesn't that make sense?