I am the author of the audio program,. The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable, published by Nightingale-Conant, and a favorite with salespeople and entrepreneurs. Its thesis is simple: (1) Do enough of anything and youll succeed at it; (2) Do even more and youll grow rich; and (3) Find a way to do more than that, and youll become a legend. I fully believe this to be true, and there are countless tales of people who have followed these directions and succeeded, dramatically. But today, I was in a more modest mood, and I asked myself: What would happen if the average person just did 10% more than hes used to doing, on a compounded basis? This year, he did 10% better than last, and next year he did 10% better than this year, and so forth. What would his ultimate achievements look like, and how much better off would he be? We know a lot about compounding when it comes to interest rates, so lets start with that model. If you saved $100 and earned 10% year after year, in something like 7.2 years youd double your money. So, if a person did 10% better at work than the next person, would he get twice as far as his colleague in 7.2 years? What about the small retail store, could they double their returns in that time? Its not slam-dunk, certainly, but its an intriguing concept, isnt it? And would you agree with me that improving in ones abilities or effectiveness just 10% per annum is within most of our powers to accomplish? If you could improve at a rate of 20%, just possibly you could double your results in 3.6 years, which is a reasonable time frame for anybody, except an outright gambler that chooses red or black in roulette. Give this question some thought, whether youre computing income, savings, or overall productivity: How can I improve just 10% this year? |