9 Things you simply must do – Part 5 ACT LIKE AN ANT
December 5, 2008“Go to the ant, you sluggard;
Consider it’s ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
No over seer or ruler,
Yet it stores its provisions in summer
And gathers its food at the harvest.”
— Proverbs 6:6–8
The activity of any individual ant seems to have little impact. Nor
is it apparent how any single grain has much to do with the big
picture of what is forming. But the impact is happening, and form
is developing.
“I am concerned that until you begin to value the little steps and
focus on them, not the big goal, you will always get discouraged
and give up. Success will seem too slow to you.”
Whether you are trying to lose weight, build a business, build a
marriage, raise a child, overcome a pattern, resolve a depression,
or build a business, it is done the same way: one brick at a time.
One grain of sand at a time.
Lessons from the Ant.
1. Works Hard -
2. Self-Disciplined - “A man without self-control is as defenseless as a city with broken-down walls” (Proverbs 25:28). In the 1960s, Walter Mischel tested four year old children for self control in “The Marshmallow Test”: the children were each given a marshmallow and told that they can eat it anytime they want, but if they waited 15 minutes, they would receive another marshmallow. Follow up studies showed that the results correlated well with these children’s success levels in later life.Self control was also shown to improve upon exercise. Exercise in these experiments varied. Taking care on posture, doing regular exercise, and other forms of self-control improved over time the self-control ability in seemingly unrelated areas.
3. Understands Today Matters - Never underestimate the value of what you do today. Today you could destroy your future or invest in the success of it.
4. Doesn’t Give Up - When I was with Capitol Records in Hollywood, the Vice President for Special Products shared with me his belief in the marvels of persistence. According to his story, one day, early in his career, while calling on retailers in downtown Los Angles, he found himself with some spare time before his next appointment, and decided to call on, for the first time, a large department store chain located a block away. When meeting the buyer, he was told there was no need for his product as the chain was satisfied with a competitor’s merchandise. The following month, being in the same area, he decided to try again. Once more the buyer told him he was not interested.
Three months later, with some free time, he made another attempt. The buyer greeted him, asking abruptly: “Where have you been for the past three months?” Perplexed, he explained on his two earlier visits, he had been clearly told there was no interest in his merchandise. At this point, the buyer told him that he did not do business with any salesperson that did not make at least three, but preferably four, sales calls. He explained it was his business philosophy to do business only with those determined to do business, and viewed determination as a sign of future reliability. With that, he was told to get out his order pad if he wished to make a sale. He learned that persistence does pay off.
5. Understands Compounding - Say that, starting in 1960, your mom put $1,000 a year into the S&P 500 for the next forty-four years. With its average rate of return of 10 percent, she’d have had $717,905 in 2004. Investing that $44,000 over those forty-four years delivered substantial returns. What’s especially striking about Mom’s happy outcome, though, is its growth curve. At her twenty-two-year mark in 1982, your mom’s then-$22,000 investment would have been worth just over $78,000 — a tidy $56,000 profit. Not bad, grant you.
But the real magic would have occurred in the next twenty-two years. Grand finale: Mom’s $78,542, plus her annual $1,000 addition, would have ballooned. Think of it: She added the same $22,000 but her account grew from $78,542 to $717,905. The magic of compounding created almost $640,000 more during the same amount of time!
