What Collecting Cars Taught Me About Patience, Craft, and Long-Term Thinking

In the age of instant gratification, where we can order anything with a thumb-tap and receive it by sunset, the world of classic car collecting stands as a stubborn, beautiful outlier.

To the uninitiated, it looks like a hobby of grease, chrome, and high-octane fuel. But for those of us who have spent years hunting down an elusive trim piece or waiting for a specific engine builder to have an opening, it is actually a masterclass in the "long game."

Here are three things collecting cars has taught me about living a more intentional life.

1. Patience is a Tool, Not a Burden

In most parts of life, "waiting" is seen as a failure of efficiency. In car collecting, waiting is a requirement. You might wait two years for the right model to appear at auction, or six months for a specific part to arrive from overseas.

Collecting taught me that the "wait" isn't dead time—it’s the period where you build appreciation. When you finally turn the key after a long restoration, the roar of the engine sounds different because you’ve earned it. It reminds me that the best things in life aren’t the ones we get quickly, but the ones we waited for until the timing was perfect.

2. The Quiet Dignity of Craft

Modern cars are miracles of engineering, but they are often built to be replaced. Older cars were built to be serviced. When you look at the hand-stitched leather of a vintage interior or the mechanical complexity of a manual gearbox, you see the fingerprints of the people who made them.

Working on these machines forces you to respect craft. You can’t "hack" a restoration. If you cut corners, the machine will eventually tell on you. It has taught me to apply that same standard to my work and relationships: do it right the first time, pay attention to the details that no one else sees, and build things that are meant to last.

3. Long-Term Thinking in a Short-Term World

A car collector is essentially a temporary steward of history. You are looking after a machine that likely existed before you and, if handled with care, will exist long after you.

This perspective shifts your mindset from consumption to preservation. You stop thinking about how a car looks this weekend and start thinking about how it will perform ten years from now. In a world obsessed with quarterly results and 24-hour news cycles, the garage is a place where we can think in decades.

The Takeaway

Collecting cars isn't just about the drive. It’s about the discipline of the process. It teaches us that speed is often the enemy of quality, that there is beauty in the struggle of a difficult repair, and that the most rewarding path is rarely the fastest one.

Next time you’re feeling rushed by the world, take a lesson from the vintage engine: sometimes you have to slow down, warm up, and take the long way home.