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 you'll succeed at it; (2)Do even more and you'll grow rich; and (3)Find a way to do more than that, and you'll 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 he's 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 let's start with that model.
If you saved $100 and earned 10% year after year, in something like 7.
2 years you'd 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? It's not slam-dunk, certainly, but it's an intriguing concept, isn't it? And would you agree with me that improving in one's 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 you're computing income, savings, or overall productivity: How can I improve just 10% this year?