The Magic Penny – Let’s get Real

MSN had a very interesting video that asked a number of regular people if they would rather have a million dollars now or take a penny now and double the amount for 30 days. As expected, 90% of people chose the million dollars now option. This was the poorer choice, because you would have short-changed yourself by over $4 Million at month-end. The simple act of doubling your previous day’s investment can rapidly reap huge rewards thanks to the powerful concept known as compounding.

While doubling a penny is all and well—the last time I checked no one has ever offered to double my money every day for an entire month. Even if we could apply this type of compound effect to something that affects us all in the real world, like a monetary account, how are we supposed to add up the compound interest effect to health, relationships, career goals, or sales results. Let’s look at it a different way. Forgetting about the compound effect on interest for a moment, what if you just put away a penny each day? Instead of doubling your money every day you would only be adding one more penny to the pile. Could you apply this principle to your relationships, health, knowledge, skills, or whatever else in life you wanted, including your sales results? What I am asking is if you can commit to improving just 1% every day? Could you? Wait! Before you answer, let’s say I asked you to commit to an even smaller percentage instead. What if I asked you to commit to improving by one third of a percent, that is 0.3% of daily improvement? Could you? 0.3% seems so small it’s almost hard to imagine what such a minuscule improvement would look like.

Now, if you were committing to improve 0.3% every day for an entire year, without compounding interest, you would just add up the 0.3% of improvement each day. Hence, the first day you would improve 0.3%; the second day, add 0.3% (0.6% in total); the third, another 0.3% (0.9% in total); so on and so forth. In the big picture, it seems like such a slight improvement, but you’re committing to consistent daily improvement. By the end of the year you would of improved by 100%! That means you would improve two times over compared to where you are today. Think about how you can apply this to your results: where you could be one year from now with your sales results if you committed to improving your selling skills and clinical abilities just 0.3% each and every day. You do NOT need to try twice as hard or long . No! Just improve 0.3% each day! Remember, greatness is never predetermined; it’s about a series of choices. Greatness is always achieved in the moment of a decision, when we are presented with a series of choices. No success is immediate, nor is failure instantaneous; they are both a direct product of the decisions we make on day-to-day basis.

To accomplish anything worthwhile in life, to create success in sales, you do not have to do extra ordinary things, but you must do something, and you must start somewhere. I am asking each one of you to commit to getting better by 0.3% every day. Can you do it?

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