Nobody gets to the level of success as Jeff Bezos or Steve Jobs without learning some level of patience. Amazing technologies like the iPhone and the Kindle wouldn't happen under the duress that I've witnessed at startups where a micro-managing founder is barking orders at people and expecting everything to be done yesterday.
People (and the press) tend to focus and sensationalize an individual's spectacular moments of impatience much more than their more regular day to day patience.
So the bottom line is, learn to be patient and expect to spend 80-90% of your time being patient. Impatience and being demanding can be a powerful weapon in helping get things done, but they should be used sparingly and in short bursts.
And expect that people will remember that one time you lost it in a meeting for a lot longer than the 100 meetings where you were attentive, supportive, and helped get things done without losing your cool.
In my experience impatience doesn't scale, unless you have the kind of pull that people like Bezos or Jobs did, and they could only accomplish that because they're founders, not just founders, but brilliant founders at that. If you work in an organization of any sort of size, you will quickly run into problems with people because of your "attitude", if you adopt this tack, even if you're brilliant (thought you'll get much further before running into trouble).
What I think you'll find is that being firm and constant but pleasant will get you far. Something is due next week? check in the week before, then check in 3 days before, then check in the day before. When you check in, ask about their day, ask about their kid's recital, ask about their sick dog. Its might feel weird, but it works.
Want something done? keep tabs on all the moving pieces and make sure you're doing everything in your power to make sure people you need to accomplish your goal have what they need to finish what they're doing.
I went into an organization thinking I could pull the Steve Jobs act and "get shit done", I almost got fired. I found that asking about someone's day and listening attentively for a few minutes is more likely to get them to help you accomplish big things, than telling people their ideas are "shit" and that they should listen to your brilliant idea :)
Just my 2c. PS: Read Dale Carnegie's 'How to win friends and influence people", its a bit corny now, but the central ideas still hold very true
Impatience (unless it's only for a short moment) comes from emotional imbalance and that, in turn, will be detrimental to continuous success.
One of the most successful indicators of success later in life is the ability to defer gratification.