Got no patience

Sup nerds,

My wife frequently calls me impatient.

She’s right. I don’t try to argue or convince her otherwise.

If I’m not having a fun at a party, I leave. If I’m on a call that’s a waste of time, I tell the other person and I get off the call. If we’re getting coffee and it’s going nowhere, farewell. When college became useless and I was making more than my professors, I dropped out. I write fast, read faster, listen to podcasts at 2x speed, and choose Looms over Zooms because I can turn up the speed! I ain’t got time to waste!

I’m an extremely impatient person in the short-term.

Probably the most impatient person you’ll ever meet. I often come across as rude or a dick. I know this. I can’t help it. When I sense I’m wasting time, my legs start twitching, my hands start jittering, I start looking around trying to find ways to excuse myself, I can’t sit still. I’ve given up on trying. My impatience is both a blessing and a curse. Yes I seem like an asshole, but it’s how I get so much shit done and people who are like me get it (I’d rather be respected by my peers than liked by everyone). I was making $40k in high school selling stickers online so no I’m not gonna sit still memorizing French pronouns! Mon frére, there’s too much shit to be done and money to be made!

Teachers hated me for this attitude (I once left class to get french fries because it was a waste of time.) Fortunately, my friends, customers, and business partners love me for it—and my competition fears me for it. I move fast as fuck.

In the short term I’m extremely impatient to the point of being rude. On the long term, I’m extremely patient to the point of looking insane or delusional. This combination means I either look like an asshole (short-term impatient) or a delusional idiot (long-term patient). Every now and then the clock strikes the right time and I seem like a smart guy. It’s a rare occasion. I know this. I’m ok with it.

Be short-term impatient, long-term patient.

“See that’s what I like about you. You don’t wait for shit,” Alex my Hollywood hookup homie told me this week.

I came up with a documentary idea on Saturday, walked across Central Park to his apartment while practicing the pitch to myself, pitched it and got him hype on it, we immediately called his partner who has a film in production with a24, got him hooked on the idea, figured out next steps, and within minutes I immediately started sending messages to the people who would be in the doc to get them signed on. By Monday morning, we had the leading person of the doc signed on. By Tuesday, we had the next biggest person on. Move fast. Yes, I know all this will take time to make this documentary happen (if does even come to fruition), but the more rapid and intense your short-term actions, the faster it can all happen over the long-term. Short-term impatience, long-term patience.

The same thing with building software.

Short-term impatience, long-term patience. Ship fast and messy. Just put something out there. Then iterate quickly. Don’t give up. Keep improving rapidly. Do this over a long-term and you will succeed. Memelord Technologies started out as a very simple product with minimal features, but with long-term patience and short-term impatience and intense action, it’s improving everyday. That’s why at 1 AM on Friday night, I was shipping new features: the ability to rename projects and do 1-click save-and-new project for fast meme-making. Sure I could’ve waited until Monday, but you don’t get these kinda messages when you’re a wait until Monday type guy.

And of course, the same mentality applies with making content.

A big audience isn’t built in a day, it’s built with short-term impatience and intense action everyday multiple timers per day combined with extremely long-term patience. If I’m on the subway, I’m writing tweets and LinkedIn posts. If I’m in a cab, I’m working on the next blog post or shipping new features for the software. When I’m early to a coffee meeting, I’m sending DMs to make sales or sending emails. When I’m taking a shit, I’m cooking up viral memes or funny Instagram vids. When I’m on the plane and the wifi is shit, I’m journaling about my next moves or reading books to help me succeed.

Expect your friends and family to not understand why you’re posting content. Expect people to hate on you and to be underestimated. Expect to be looked at like an idiot. If everyone can understand your actions, your long-term vision isn’t big enough. Just because results aren’t happening yet and you feel stupid, don’t let it stop you from being impatient in the short-term and getting shit done. Eventually, if you keep going, you won’t feel stupid. Invest in loss.

Like a couple weeks ago, I posted about how I got new software signups by posting stickers with QR codes everywhere my dog peed. I just walked around NYC posting weird-looking stickers wherever my dog peed knowing other people with dogs would check them out while their dogs were peeing. I knew I must’ve looked absolutely batshit, but I didn’t care. I knew if it worked, it’d be a legendary story plus I’d get money from signups. Long-term patience. Commit to the bit. I just smiled and listened to music and tuned out the judgement. Then when paid subscribers came in, I wrote a post about it. They’ll cal you cringe until you’re rich—then they’ll call you a genius.

3 years ago, I started tweeting regularly and writing this newsletter every Sunday and people thought I was stupid and wasting my time (yet my newsletter community keeps growing). 13 months ago, I published my book Memes Make Millions and people thought I was insane for writing a book about memes (meanwhile, we’re living in a meme marketing Renaissance and my book sales pick up every month). Meanwhile, I started making YouTube videos when I was 11 dreaming of making Hollywood movies and am 27 finally getting to pitch studios. Everything takes time and patience (but also extreme impatience to get the work done).

So if I walk out of your party or talk, it’s nothing personal.

I don’t do it to be rude. I don’t think I’m more important than you or anything. I just value my time and love my work and I encourage you to do the same as well. My grandpa was an author who wrote 12 books. On his deathbed, his biggest regret was not writing more books. That’s the voice inside that drives me. If I’m not creating, I’m wasting time. I got a lot of dreams I’m tryna accomplish—build more businesses, make movies, write books—and nobody is gonna make these dreams happen for me except me.

Memes of the Week

Bangers only from me, my customers, and my memelord mafia

Thanks for reading nerds.

Create some cool shit this week.

Jason “The Memelord” Levin

Founder of Memelord Technologies, Author of Memes Make Millions

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