More Fantastic February

In light of yesterday's rant, I'd like to post some additional musings on productivity...although, this time, they are not my own.

It's a little lengthy, but IMHO, worth the read.

(Yes, I just broke my own cardinal rule of communication...I used an acronym.  But, hey, it was efficient.  Just like the three sentences I just wrote to explain myself.)

And now, the musings:

The Law of Increasing Returns

Sterling W. Sill

One of the most important discoveries of our world is made when we live in a world governed by laws. We may make ourselves the beneficiaries of every one of the laws of the land, the laws of God, the laws of health, and the laws of success. One of the greatest of all success laws and one that we sometimes frequently overlook is the law of increasing returns.

We might define this law by saying that an increase of labor or capital applied beyond a certain point causes a greater than proportionate increase in the production from the unit to which the additional labor or capital is applied.

Suppose there were six elements determining your success, and that you rated three on each of these success factors. Look what happens to the total: 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 = 729. Then suppose that by improvement you could increase your rating to four. See what happens to the total: 4 x 4 x 4 x 4 x 4 x 4 = 4096. You increase each success factor only 33 1/3 percent, and yet the total result is increased over five times.

From this we see that you don't need to be twice as good to double your score. If you are a third better, your score may be five times as great.

Success has been compared to making a run in baseball. If you hit a three-bagger but die on third base, no part of the play is counted. But if you hit the ball just a little bit harder and make a home run, you do a little more work, but the reward is greatly increased.

This law which says that the returns increase much faster than the amount of labor applied is in evidence all around us. For example, Armed was the race horse of the year in 1947. His earnings through 1947 were $761,500, and he later became the first thoroughbred in the history of United States racing to win a million dollars in prizes. The horse that finished close behind him time after time and sometimes only by a length or a nose in a mile had earnings of approximately $75,000, and very few people ever heard his name. Do you think Armed was thirteen times as good or even twice as good? Actually, he wasn't even four percent better, and yet he earned thirteen times as much money.

The advantages of this important law of increasing returns might be further illustrated if we imagined ourselves as the government and we were collecting income taxes. Out of the first thousand dollars you get $145. Out of the fifth one thousand dolars you would get $210. Out of the thirteenth one thousand dollars you would get $290. Out of the 100th one thousand dollars, you would get $690. And out of the 170th thousand dollars you would get $700. And that is the way it is in life. We usually do more work than we are paid for at the bottom of our condition, and we get more pay than we deserve when we put ourselves at the top. If we never do more than we get paid for, we will likely never get paid for more than we do. Some people do as little as they possibly can to get by, and that is about all that they ever do get.

Jesus was one of the chief proponents of this law of increasing returns. He told of a householder going into a far country, and to one of his servants he gave one talent, and to another five, and to another ten. When he returned, two of his servants had doubled his money, but the one to whom he gave one talent said, "I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth." Jesus said to him, "Thou wicked and slothful servant." Then he said to those who were with him, "Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents . . . And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Jesus also said: "For unto every one that hath shall be given,. . . but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." (Matt. 24:14-30.) That is the law of increasing returns.

You remember in school that a seventy percent grade was passing. If you worked hard enough to get sixty-nine percent, you failed, but if you studied enough harder to get seventy-one percent, you passed. What a tremenous difference was made by that small extra effort. However, if you worked a little more effectively still, you might get close to one hundred percent. This small additional effort at the top of the scale can make you a real champion. And what a great pleasure it is to be habitually and comfortably entitled to this permanent rank of superiority.

This magic law of increasing returns says that as we ascend the scale, our income and our virtues and our happiness increase in excess of and out of proportion to the extra effort put forth to produce it. One person is just a little more thoughtful, plans a little better, works a little harder, stays at it a little longer, looks a little better, studies a little more, and he gets several times as much credit.

Our business is the easiest and we have a lot more fun when we work the hardest. It is the hardest and we have a lot more headaches when we work the easiest.

A few years ago Daryl F. Zanuck made a movie out of W. Somerset Maugham's book The Razor's Edge. The point of the book deals with the idea that the line that separates failure from success is as fine as a razor's edge. One of the best illustrations of this truth was demonstrated in the filming of the picture itself. There were eight principal actors and eight stand-ins. After the film was finished Life magazine published the pictures of the eight principals on one page and the eight stand-ins on the opposite page. The stand-in for Tyrone Power, for example, was Thomas Noonan, a close associate. They had gone through high school together. They were about the same size, equally intelligent, dressed about the same, and very similar in appearance. As close a similarity as possible existed between each principal and his stand-in. But in one way they were not similar. The combined salaries received by the eight principals for filming this picture amounted to $489,000; the combined salaries for the eight stand-ins amounted to $6,534. The principals were just a little bit better, but they received seventy-five times as much compensation.

This great law of increasing returns is in continual operation in everything we do. Think what a tremendous difference ten percent in excellence would make in a husband or a disciple of the Master. One is just a little more thoughtful, a little more constant, a little more punctual, a little more loyal, a little more faithful, a little more industrious, a little more moral, a little more dependable.

Think of the magic that can be found in a mere ten percent. An ordinary man may stand 72 inches from the ground to the top of his head. Subtract ten percent and you have a runt, but if you add ten percent, you have a giant. Comparable changes take place when you subtract or add ten percent to your diligence or your perseverance or your enthusiasm or your faith. It makes a difference between a peewee and a giant.

As a result of this principle, we discover one of the secrets of leadership success. The outstanding leader is the one who does his best and then adds ten percent. He is the one who aims ten percent higher and works ten percent harder and stays on the job ten percent longer.

On the walls of the Library of Congress are written these words: "He aims too low who aims beneath the stars." If this is true of ordinary success, what would we say of a low aim in our family relationships or a low aim when the celestial kingdom is at stake? For many people the slightest success then becomes tremendously important. Think what would happen if each of us raised his accomplishment objective ten percent or twenty percent. Think what the result would be in eternity. The poet said:

It doesn't take a man of giant mold
To cast a giant shadow on the wall.
But he who is our daily sight
Seems but a figure mean and small,
Outlined in fame's illusive light
May cast a silhouette sublime
Across the canvas of our time.

Suppose we just miss the celestial kingdom by the margin of a razor's edge. That may not be much difference, but how important that difference may be throughout eternity. We all achieve about what we aim for. It is for this reason that "not failure but low aim is crime."

On October 6, 1955, a United Air Lines plane crashed into the top of Medicine Bow Mountain in Wyoming and sixty-five people lost their lives. The pilot was flying at 12,000 feet. If he had been flying at 12,055 feet, the greatest air disaster in American history to that date would have been averted and the lives of sixty-five people would have been saved. What a difference a few more feet in altitude would have made to those people and their families!

It is the same with our success. Often we fly just high enough to miss the treetops, whereas just a little more effort, a little more determination would put us in the big leagues of success in our lives.

Jesus said that we should live "by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God." (Matt. 4:4.) The Duke of Wellington once said to some French soldiers that British soldiers were not braver than French soldiers; they were only brave for five minutes longer. And Jim Corbett, the former heavyweight champion prize fighter of the world, said that the secret of success in the prize ring was the ability to stay one more round. This is about the same thing that the apostle Paul was saying when he said, ". . . let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." (Gal. 6:9.) And Jesus said, ". . . he that endureth to the end shall be saved." (Matt. 10:22.)

One of the greatest lessons of success taught by the Master was to go the extra mile. Do a little more and do it with a little more faith, a little more energy, a little more go-at-it-iveness, a little more stick-to-it-iveness, a little more devotion, and a little more righteousness, and behold, you have changed yourself from a stand-in to a star. The Lord has said that those who qualify for the celestial kingdom will be those who are valiant in the testimony of Jesus. As a usual thing, one may spend about as much energy in going to hell as he does in going to heaven. The difference is just a little change in attitude and a little more effort in the right direction. The results are tremendous, though the difference may be as fine as a razor's edge.

We are the children of God. He has given us all of the natural endowments necessary to make us champions. May we provide that extra effort to enable us to reach the goal of being like him.