Why Success is the Sum of Small Efforts

“Success is the sum of small efforts – repeated day in and day out.” ~ Robert Collier

There is an old Chinese proverb which says… “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” One small step for man may look insignificant but taken repeatedly for a prolonged period of time can take you over a considerable distance of a thousand or more miles. When you master certain significantly small actions repeated over time in the course of your business, by the time you achieve something big in the process, you too may even wonder how you did it in the first place. What matters is to get into action and get busy working in the direction of your goals. No matter how small the steps you are taking, so long as such steps are in the right direction, your seemingly big problem will be solved before too long. It is not the size of the steps you take in the direction of your goals which count the most. What counts is ensuring that such steps no matter how small are in the right direction of your goals. That is the surest way to success.

In you sincerely run a business, you may have discovered from experience that nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs. No matter how big a problem may appear to be, if you can divide it into bits and pieces then take them on in that form, you can get the whole big problem resolved fairly more easily through all these little bits and pieces you’ve handled along the way. Every big problem is the sum total of very small problems binding together. A smart problem solver first isolates these small problems, then solves then one at a time. Taking that cue, even you, by the time you solve all the small problems making up the big problem you are facing, you will discover that the big problem has been solved. Just like that!

Get busy right now because…. “No pains, no gains. To get the prize, you must pay the price.”

Being Busy is Not Enough

“The essential question is not, “How busy are you?” but “What are you busy at?” ~ Oprah Winfrey

You are very busy, right? That’s great. If I may ask, what are you busy at? It is not enough to be busy. What you are busy at is what holds the key to your success or failure in your chosen venture. If you are busy at what is not helpful to your course, you are merely dissipating valuable energy in the wrong direction. Being busy doing what will get you favorable results is what helps your course. Have you ever heard of the cliché “motion without movement?” Sitting on a rocking chair is motion but no movement. You remain on one spot merely rocking away. You are busy ok, but you aren’t making any progress from the spot you are on.

Take for instance you want to run a 100 meters sprint in a competition. You may have trained really hard and psyched up yourself for the race. When the competition proper commences, no matter what amount of energy you put in the race, you can never win if you do not race towards a well-marked-out finishing line and actually finish the race. No matter how hard and fast you run, without keeping to the rules, you can never win the race. The direction and pattern of your race determines whether you will win or lose the race. Running a business of your own follows a similar pattern. You can never get favorable results if you are unable to do things in the direction of getting those results. Meaning, all actions you take in the course of your business either individually or collectively must be geared towards the direction of achieving the goals you’ve set for your business. In other words, being busy is just not enough to see you through. What you are busy doing is what gets you the coveted prize.

Get busy right now because…. “No pains, no gains. To get the prize, you must pay the price.”