Found this on a comment section of Seeking Alpha.  It was posted by someone who used the example of Warren Buffet and Birkshire Hathaway to illustrate that a long term investment, if it is a good investment in the first place, takes patience to pay off.  Since "Patience" was one of our recent topics over on the Discussion Forum I thought it migh prove educational to look at a real example of how patience paid off:

"For those who want a sense of just how LONG-Term long-term really is, this is a good study. Remember, we're talking about perhaps the best performing buy-and-hold stock in history. But what a ride you'd have had the last 36 years!

In late 1968, BRKA had gone from an all-time low of $13 in the first quarter of its existence (1Q '65) to $39. A three-bagger in four years.

Yet EIGHT YEARS LATER, Berkshire hit a low of $38 in 1976. Down a dollar in eight years! Can you imagine the bitching (and selling) Dazz would've done back then. No dividend and -$1 over an 8-year period.

With his luck, he'd probably have bought BRK at its $93 high in early '73! So, over an eight-year period BRK went nowhere and over the last three years of that time frame, it dropped from $93 to $38.

Of course, THE BUSINESS ITSELF was doing great ALL ALONG. There were, even in hindsight, no major screw ups. Just tons of smart Buffett decisions. The market was simply wrong.

Throughout its history, the longer Berkshire stagnated, the more spectacular its subsequent explosion. After going nowhere for those eight years from '68 to '76, Berkshire went from $39 to $1385 in the next SEVEN years (by late '83). A 35-bagger in less than the next eight years!"