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Trust Your Own Timeline
In a world obsessed with speed, patience feels like rebellion.
Everywhere you look, someone’s launching faster, scaling quicker, going viral before you’ve even found your stride. And if you’re not careful, you start to believe the lie that faster is better. That if you were truly good, you’d be further along by now.
But here’s what better entrepreneurs know: there is no universal timeline. There is only yours.
The myth of overnight successMost of the “overnight” success stories you see have 5, 10, sometimes 20 years behind them. Years of failing in public. Years of building in obscurity. Years of trying things, binning them, and trying again.
What you’re seeing now is just the tipping point. Not the timeline.
Trying to rush your growth because someone else’s feed makes you feel behind is like planting a garden and digging it up every week to see if it’s growing.
That’s not how trust is built.
Why rushing ruins your best workWhen you move too fast:
You make decisions from panic, not power.
You sacrifice depth for dopamine.
You chase trends instead of building something timeless.
Speed creates noise. But stillness creates resonance.
Slowing down doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means moving deliberately. Choosing substance over spectacle. Depth over dazzle.
My real timeline (and why it’s still unfolding)I’ve been in this game for nearly three decades. And I can tell you this: the most satisfying work I’ve done has taken time. Much as I wanted to go faster!
Time to mature. Time to marinate. Time to move from idea to clarity to execution.
Even this very course took years to land fully in my bones.
I needed to live the life and build the businesses, learning the lessons so that I could not only write the story in my book 'A Better Entrepreneur' from the heart. But so that I could look back on each chapter and puzzle out the lesson learned from each part of my story.
I needed to listen to several hundred episodes of Storygrid podcast so that I could get to the bit where they started talking about how to structure a 'Big Idea Non Fiction' book properly, so I could create the Storygrid spreadsheet, plot my story within it, then write it well.
Instead of coaching hundreds of business owners one-to-one over the years I could’ve pushed any old course on 'starting a business' out earlier. But by waiting, it's turned into a course on becoming a better entrepreneur, because I've had to learn how to become that.
It wouldn’t have carried the same weight. The same lived truth. The same real-world resonance.
Some work needs time to grow legs before it can fly.
And that’s okay.
What trusting your timeline looks likeIgnoring the pressure to constantly be in launch mode
Saying no to shortcuts that compromise your values
Giving your ideas room to breathe, evolve, and deepen
Creating at the speed of honesty, not hype
Better entrepreneurs don’t try to beat the clock.They build something they’re proud to look back on.
Today’s Action:Think about something you’ve been rushing. Ask yourself: “What would happen if I gave this time?”
Reframe “I’m behind” to “I’m right where I need to be to learn what’s next.”
Write down one thing that took longer than expected — but was absolutely worth the wait.
Your pace is not a problem.
It’s part of your pattern.
Trust it.
New Around Here?The 'Better Entrepreneur Blueprint' is being published on my blog here, and on my Substack totally free of charge.
Sessions drop Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. This is:
Phase 1: FoundationsSession 8: Trust Your Own TimelineWant to start from the beginning? Back to Day One 'The New Entrepreneurs Rising'
In a hurry? Get the book on Amazon, or get the book and interactive app here on my website. However, you do still need to subscribe to this course as we'll be exploring each of the 25 Lessons more deeply than the book does, and it gives you actionable insights into how to apply each one to your business.
Subscribe now via email or substack app so you don't miss the next instalments:
Subscribe By Email Here
Subscribe On Substack
View all episodes
By Nicola CairncrossIn a world obsessed with speed, patience feels like rebellion.
Everywhere you look, someone’s launching faster, scaling quicker, going viral before you’ve even found your stride. And if you’re not careful, you start to believe the lie that faster is better. That if you were truly good, you’d be further along by now.
But here’s what better entrepreneurs know: there is no universal timeline. There is only yours.
The myth of overnight successMost of the “overnight” success stories you see have 5, 10, sometimes 20 years behind them. Years of failing in public. Years of building in obscurity. Years of trying things, binning them, and trying again.
What you’re seeing now is just the tipping point. Not the timeline.
Trying to rush your growth because someone else’s feed makes you feel behind is like planting a garden and digging it up every week to see if it’s growing.
That’s not how trust is built.
Why rushing ruins your best workWhen you move too fast:
You make decisions from panic, not power.
You sacrifice depth for dopamine.
You chase trends instead of building something timeless.
Speed creates noise. But stillness creates resonance.
Slowing down doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means moving deliberately. Choosing substance over spectacle. Depth over dazzle.
My real timeline (and why it’s still unfolding)I’ve been in this game for nearly three decades. And I can tell you this: the most satisfying work I’ve done has taken time. Much as I wanted to go faster!
Time to mature. Time to marinate. Time to move from idea to clarity to execution.
Even this very course took years to land fully in my bones.
I needed to live the life and build the businesses, learning the lessons so that I could not only write the story in my book 'A Better Entrepreneur' from the heart. But so that I could look back on each chapter and puzzle out the lesson learned from each part of my story.
I needed to listen to several hundred episodes of Storygrid podcast so that I could get to the bit where they started talking about how to structure a 'Big Idea Non Fiction' book properly, so I could create the Storygrid spreadsheet, plot my story within it, then write it well.
Instead of coaching hundreds of business owners one-to-one over the years I could’ve pushed any old course on 'starting a business' out earlier. But by waiting, it's turned into a course on becoming a better entrepreneur, because I've had to learn how to become that.
It wouldn’t have carried the same weight. The same lived truth. The same real-world resonance.
Some work needs time to grow legs before it can fly.
And that’s okay.
What trusting your timeline looks likeIgnoring the pressure to constantly be in launch mode
Saying no to shortcuts that compromise your values
Giving your ideas room to breathe, evolve, and deepen
Creating at the speed of honesty, not hype
Better entrepreneurs don’t try to beat the clock.They build something they’re proud to look back on.
Today’s Action:Think about something you’ve been rushing. Ask yourself: “What would happen if I gave this time?”
Reframe “I’m behind” to “I’m right where I need to be to learn what’s next.”
Write down one thing that took longer than expected — but was absolutely worth the wait.
Your pace is not a problem.
It’s part of your pattern.
Trust it.
New Around Here?The 'Better Entrepreneur Blueprint' is being published on my blog here, and on my Substack totally free of charge.
Sessions drop Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. This is:
Phase 1: FoundationsSession 8: Trust Your Own TimelineWant to start from the beginning? Back to Day One 'The New Entrepreneurs Rising'
In a hurry? Get the book on Amazon, or get the book and interactive app here on my website. However, you do still need to subscribe to this course as we'll be exploring each of the 25 Lessons more deeply than the book does, and it gives you actionable insights into how to apply each one to your business.
Subscribe now via email or substack app so you don't miss the next instalments:
Subscribe By Email Here
Subscribe On Substack