An Editor's Journal

I was struck by this quote from a recent Fast Company article: 

When companies like Pinterest and Instagram become successes overnight, our expectations for what brands can or can’t do become unhinged from reality.

While I like the basic tenant of the quote - that companies/brands/individuals have lost patience in our fast-paced digital world - I wonder how true the “overnight success” part really is. 

When you think of companies like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, perhaps it only seems like their growth happened overnight. Mark Zuckerberg spent his whole life coding and programming, and was therefore able to create The Facebook literally overnight. Countless hours were spent in unknowing preparation for what Facebook would become. I am sure the same is true of Instagram and Pinterest. 

The reality is that no success happens with pure luck, even though it may seem like it. Someone, somewhere, has put in thousands of hours of work that eventually led to some “overnight success”. So perhaps our issue is not one of patience, but of misunderstanding what hard work really is.

It’s our perspective that has been skewed, not necessarily just our patience.

What do you think?

-JA