Lessons from the Slight Edge
I wanted to share a few more lessons I have learned from reading The Slight Edge: Secret to a Successful Life
For me as an entrepeneur a lot of the lessons are things I already knew but they are explained so much better by Jeff. That’s probably one of the key things is the stories he uses to explain the slight edge.
Take for example someone who is beginning to work out. One of the reasons why so many people buy gym memberships and quit after a month is that they don’t see the results immediately.
Imagine if a marathon runner did that. When he is starting out learning to run a marathon he has to start small. Maybe only a mile at first. Gradually he increases the distance. After a month maybe he’s running 3 miles. Certainly not anywhere close to a marathon! (26 miles!) After a few months though the runner is now running 8 miles once a week and training 3-4 times a week at shorter distances. The runner can now feel a difference and begins to know that they can do a marathon. (see training schedules for marathon runners.)
There is an excellent story in the book about the water hyacinth. The water hyacinth is a flower that grows on the surface of ponds. The hyacinth doubles every day by reaching out under the water and starting a second stem every day. If you were to look at a small pond on day 1 you wouldn’t even notice the single water hyacinth. Yet after just one month the ENTIRE pond surface would be covered. BUT that’s not the real story.
The real story is that for the first few weeks you’d have to search the surface of the pond to find the small patch of water hyacinth. On day 15 you’ll see a single square foot of color on the surface where the water hyacinth grows. On the 20th day (2/3rds of the way through a month) you’ll see a small dense patch of water hyacinth floating on the surface. About the size of a small mattress.
On day 29 half the pond’s surface will be covered. It will have taken 29 days to go from one little water hyacinth stem to covering half the pond.
On day 30 the pond will be entirely covered with water hyacinth. You won’t see any water at all.
Now think about that and compare it to your network marketing business. You’re working hard. You’re recruiting and building a small team. It feels like such a struggle. You sponsor people who don’t do anything. People who join you and seem like they could be a star seem to be in slow motion. You know they have the talent but they aren’t doing anything yet.
That’s the first 20 days of the water hyacinth. You’re working hard and not seeing as much results as you hoped.
Yet quickly momentum builds. The water hyacinth goes from a little patch to covering the entire surface of the pond. In fact in just one day it covers half the surface of the pond! It goes from only covering half to covering the entire surface in just 24 hours.
That’s momentum in your MLM enterprise. It takes time to get there, but when you hit momentum your business grows by leaps and bounds. Your team will grow in short periods of time what it took months or years to achieve as you started your business. In the last year my downline DOUBLED. It took 3.5 years to get build a team that size and then over just 1 year it doubled again. And it will probably double again in 6 months time!
That’s momentum.
It might not feel like it at the beginning as your beginning to build but that consistent daily action is what will grow your business. Think of the water hyacinth. On day 1 there was just 1 flower. On day 2 just 2 flowers. But day 3 there were 4. Day 4 there were 8. Day 5 there were 16. Day 6 there were 32 flowers.
Don’t give up on day 2. Don’t stop working your business.
BUILD BUILD BUILD. Be patient. Be persistent. Be a bulldog. Be ferocious about follow up. Work with the willing. AND GROW a massive organization 
- Ben Fitts
Have you seen the issue of Success from Home featuring my company and 5 of my downline?
If you enjoyed this post get free updates via email or RSS here.
