Patience is the 10x skill

Everyone wants to know what skills will be relevant in the job market 10 / 15 / 20 years from now. Hard skills are important, but the primo skill du jour is changing as it were...on the daily.

If I had to name the one attribute that has helped me the most professionally (and personally), it's patience.

Patience to do repetitive, almost mind-numbing troubleshooting (which is a major part of web dev and mechanical work.)

Patience to hear someone else's idea even (and especially) when I disagree.

Patience to check myself before sharing my gut reaction.

Patience to learn something new—even when it's hard.

Patience to work on the long term strategy when there's pressure to gun for quick wins.

Patience. Patience. Patience.

If you don't have patience today, it doesn't matter what skills are in demand tomorrow.