Whether you are trying to build a Fortune 500 company or tap dance on the moon, success in anything is a two step dance. The first is understanding what you need to do. This is tricky because the foundations of “what you need to do” are most often built on quicksand. It’s tricky, there is no doubt in that, but eventually most entrepreneurialy minded people figure it out, coming up with a clever, arguably brilliant plan to get what they have been looking for.

Step two is executing on the plan until it works.

This is where we start running into troubles.

The problem is rarely that the plan isn’t good. If you spend enough time working through the process of say finding a publisher for your new children’s novel about a neurotic Tortoise, the steps you need to take become pretty clear: write the book, find an agent, sign a publisher, do revisions and then market until everyone you have ever met can recite verbatim a list of everything your Tortoise has ever eaten.

The problem though is that each of these steps has this odd tendency of becoming infinitely more complicated than it looks on paper.

We underestimate how badly we have underestimated the project. We assume conservatively that we will need to pitch five agents in five weeks to find one to represent our book, when in reality it’s a lot more like twenty-five agents over the course of six months. We assume that our geo-location startup will start generating $10,000 monthly revenue in the first six weeks when in reality it’s more like $2,000 in sixteen. We expect that all our troubles will be linear and predictable when the truth is that trouble tends to come in fits and starts and that the things that end up killing us rarely have contingencies built around them.

That’s why execution is always so much more interesting than planning because execution requires that you stand firm and patiently fight your way through obstacles that you never knew existed, towards a goal that seems increasingly impossible to achieve. Execution is what separates entrepreneurs who wile away their days spinning idea after idea over Frappachinos and those who eventually find the mark. It’s the difference between the glorious march into battle is to the heat and stink and death of the war.

So my friends, you may be asking whether there might a secret to successful execution. If there is some way to expect the unexpected and thus sleep easy at night knowing that you have planned for the unknowable. The answer is “sort of” but it has nothing at all to do with flow charts and financial projections.

The answer is to cultivate patience.

Patience that lets you accept problems as they come with the knowledge that they are just part of the cost of doing business.

Patience that gives you the clarity to make decisions and make compromises as the foundations of your plan start to shift under your feet.

Patience that allows you to be open to unexpected opportunities instead of blinded by crisis.

Patience that keeps you from flying off the handle, throwing in the towel or making problems worse when you are inevitably put to the test. The type of patience that is hardest to maintain precisely when you need it most.

The trouble with your project likely has nothing at all to do with your ability to plan. It’s much more likely due to your misguided belief that you are capable of planning away all problems, and your lack of patience when you’re eventually proven wrong. (Images)

If you enjoyed that why not find a job or read our guide to working in the 21st century. You can also join our Kiva team or hire me for your project.