Ambition without patience turns into shortcuts, and shortcuts turn into stories you don’t want told.

When you want something badly and will not wait for it, the gap fills up with methods you would not otherwise choose: a copied assignment, a stretched claim, somebody else’s credit taken quietly. Each one looks small and specific to its moment. What they produce is a record other people carry around, and reputations are built out of incidents far more than intentions. Hurry is what manufactures the regret.

When you catch yourself rushing, ask what the version of this would be that you would happily have described out loud. Usually it takes a week longer, and that week is cheap.