THE ‘PENNY PRINCIPLE’ OF SUCCESS
Did you know that every little change you make in your life adds up? Every little improvement you make compounded over time does make a difference. Some little things that don’t look like they matter, they matter a lot and they make all the difference. These things have to do with your daily habits.
Someone has said that success is the sum of small habits repeated day in and day out. People are rewarded in public for what they practice in private. For example you could save a little money privately for a long time. It adds up over time…little by little, and a little leads to a lot.
Someone wrote a book about it. He gave the comparison to this effect: “If I offered 2 people to choose to take either Sh.300Million today or one Shilling that doubles up every day for 31 days, which one would you choose?” Most people would take the Sh.300M. Let’s say you choose the 1 Shilling that doubles up every single day. On day ten your one Shilling would turn to 500. Your friend has 300M. On day 20, you have Sh.500,000. and your friend has Sh.300M. By day 29, you’d be at Sh290M. Your friend has Sh.300M, still a little ahead of you. But by day 30, you’d have Sh.530,000,000. By the last day, day 31, you’d end up with Sh.1,073,741,800.24. The doubling Shilling is worth over Sh1.07 Billion compared to their Sh.300M. That’s the ‘magic’ of staying with something that compounds over time. (See Exodus 23:30).
Just like that one Shilling, when you form good habits day by day, little by little, they compound. For example, just starting a habit of reading can change your life. Let’s say all you can see yourself do today is washing people’s clothes, if you start reading about it, your vision of seeing people with clean clothes could eventually go nationwide to where you open up a chain of dry cleaners, or even invent new detergents for washing clothes. Never minimize someone’s vision.
A 26 year-old man who had never read a single book since high school started reading books at someone’s recommendation and his entire life changed. He started learning things like: decide what you want in life and write it down. He never thought that way before. He decided the income he wanted. He heard that there is good money in cleaning floors. He borrowed $980 to buy buckets, mops and an old floor-cleaning machine. He started with one office then to another office then another one. His business grew to cleaning many offices. In the first year, he made $175,000 cleaning floors. Within 5 years time, his income was worth over $1M. How did this happen? It was the result of reading a little bit every single day. Today, Bob Proctor is a multimillionaire and a success coach to millions world-wide; all because he started the habit.
So often, we want our circumstances to change. We want a better salary, a better career, a better marriage, a better body, better opportunities but the way to have better is to become better. When you improve, your life improves. When you begin to grow, your opportunities will grow, your salary will grow and the quality of your relationships will grow.
Throughout the Bible, it’s the choice of the individual that God honored and worked with. He gave man dominion at the beginning (Gen. 1:26) and set him up for success right then. The moment you choose success, God backs you up. But He lets you choose how far you go.
In Deut. 30:18-20 He says: I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life that both you and your descendants may live. God will change your circumstances, as you choose to change. Remember, success is the “sum of small efforts repeated day in, day out.”
