How long does it take to build a Wonder of the World? 

It takes time to create something beautiful; the Sistine Chapel took Michelangelo four years, not counting how long it took him to develop the skills he needed to do this. There are learnings at each stage, understanding what is really required, what works, what does not and while all this is happening there is a constant development of skills. The story of how Garfield evolved also, applies to almost anything that one is creating including a Business. In business there is no overnight success. Overnight recognition or fall yes; but the seeds for this are often planted many years earlier.  Infosys, start to IPO took 13 years from 1981 to 1993. Google's (idea to IPO) took 9 years from 1996 (at that time its name is BackRub, the name Google came in 1998) to 2004 (April 29, Google filed with the SEC for an initial public offering (IPO)).

In the age of YouTube however success looks a lot more instant, founded in Feb 2005, Google bought it in Oct-Nov 2006, however we have seen this happen earlier with Hot Mail, which was founded in 1995 and bought by Microsoft in 1997. These phenomenal successes however are more of the nature of invention than building an organization. Both these ventures hardly had any revenues to speak of at the time of being sold.

So why does it take time? I think everything needs to fall into place. For instance you might have a great product; however it takes time for your customer to get familiar with it. You might have the time to sit with him the whole day and try to get him to use it; but does he? If you already own a powerful brand and a channel it might be that much easier; else it takes time to create those channels to reach him.

So patience is a virtue while building something. Patience does not mean wasting time or wasting resources. One needs to put in the best one can and squeeze out the most from the resources at one's disposal but one really cannot control results and for this one needs to be patient.

I recall Bill Gates saying something like this in his book "Business @ the Speed of Thought", People overestimate what can be achieved in the short term and underestimate what can be achieved in the long term. So this is exactly what I mean by patience. Keep at it, dream big, but however keep this in mind while looking for results.

Of course how aggressive you need to be while deploying resources and risking it depends on how well you know the business. As a thumb rule I feel:

For Known Business, Known Resources, Known Methods and Benchmarks -  Bet Big and attempt to scale quickly.
If you own a restaurant and it worked for you go ahead
and scale.

Unknown Business, No Benchmarks, then experiment, bet money that you can lose without breaking intoa sweat, learn and bet more, experiment more and when you see something working then scale. 

Jim Collins in the Book Built to Last narrates how Building
a Business is like charging a flywheel, you keep at it, winding the key slowly and steadily and at one stage
enough momentum and energy get built up to make your business zip.

Deep Kalra of makemytrip.com which survived the dotcom bust days calls the difficult post bubble days as the "Agni Pariksha" this is the time that businesses really learn what it is that makes them tick and come out stronger, with better processes and a better understanding of what works for them. So as an entrepreneur and as an innovator or as a builder of a business you need to go through the Agni Pariksha to create something beautiful.

Shah Jahan began the Taj Mahal not long after Mumtaz's death in 1631. The principal mausoleum was completed seventeen years later, and the surrounding buildings and garden five years after that. This is how long it takes to make a wonder of the world.  

The author is Chief Catalyst of Businessgyan. He is an alumni of IIT M, IIM-B. His areas of interest include business strategy and innovation. E mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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