Too many people abandon the success path and drop their aspirations halfway. They strive for years to build a project, develop new skills, or simply lift their life to the next level. But then, they give up.
The Learning Curve
Today, I share methods and tools that allow me to keep moving through the learning curve until I reach my goal. If someone fails to understand the learning curve, giving up is almost inevitable.
But first, I must test your patience for a moment with math. Please forgive me and keep watching.
Compounded Effort
You learned at school how interest lets a small amount you save every month grow faster and faster. If you do things right, the same happens with the steady effort you invest into yourself and your business. You and your business will grow faster and faster.
You can see with this graph how steady effort leads at a certain point to an explosion of growth. The axis from left to right in this graph illustrates the sum of the effort you have invested into your project, the axis from bottom to top illustrates the results.
The formula is e powered by x. We call e the base and x the exponent. In statistics, we like to take e as the basis for the exponential function. The rounded decimal value of e is 2.72. But we could take any base bigger than one. This would flatten the curve, but the final effect would remain the same.
Imagine how much energy the engines of a plane mobilize before liftoff. But once the plane has reached the necessary speed, it rises steeply. And, when the plane flies high enough, the pilot can reduce the workload of the engines drastically.
Why do I bother you with this function? Here is the reason: If you don’t know the exponential function, you will most certainly give up before you are ready to lift off. You capitulate, and all your effort is wasted.
The Lift-Off Point
The exponential function consists of two components: The base e and the exponent x. As the exponent x illustrates the sum of resources you have spent, it grows step by step as you work on your project, investing time, energy, and money. Your project lifts off exactly at the point where the results start growing faster than the resources you invest.
Viability
The shape of the learning curve and the necessary investment depends on the viability of the project. We express the viability as a constant. In math, we call that constant the base of the exponential function. If the base is one, the curve will be flat forever. In that case, you will never lift off. If the basis is smaller than one, additional effort diminishes the result. Therefore, a project with an viability exponent below 1 sinks, and sooner or later it crashes.
Therefore, every project needs a solid base bigger than one and sufficient resources to propel it through the lift-off point. Whenever the base is too low, you must rethink the project and tweak it to add viability. If you want to evaluate the viability of a project, you need to determine the size of the base and assess the resources necessary to blast through the lift-off point. If the base is big enough and you have the resources to propel you through the lift-off point, you have won.
Is my Project Doable?
To determine if something is doable, ask first: Who, and how many, succeeded with it before? And who did similar things? If you find several people did successfully what you plan to achieve, success is possible. Start out following their path. If you find many people who tried and failed, but none who succeeded, you must find a different approach to solve the problem. In that case, focus on research and learning until you can define a promising path to success.
For Success You Need a Plan
For every successful project, you need a plan. You must know where you stand and determine the necessary steps for reaching the lift-off point. You must map out your success path, otherwise you lack stability and fail. Yes, this is the simple truth.
Example: Building a YouTube Audience
Imagine building a YouTube audience. To get there, you must go through several steps:
- Develop your message and your story: Who do you want to reach? What do you want to tell them?
- Build expertise and authority: Learn how to present your message in a way allowing your audience to listen, understand, and believe what you have to say.
- Develop a passion for public speaking: That passion provides self-confidence, joy, and fun while speaking. Your audience feels whether you believe listening to you is precious. Learn how to do this!
- Technical problems: Which camera to use? How to get good lighting? How to create a good audio experience? Which equipment? And where to get it?
Without a roadmap, you start buying a fancy camera and produce a few videos. After a short time, you give up because nobody listens. And even worse, you regret that you ever started.
The Success Path is all about Building Leverage
Why does the first grand you spend on a project bring fewer results than grand number 19?
Imagine you want to hang a screen on the wall. Here, you must perform a few things first: Check the place, where you want to hang the screen. Is the wall strong enough to hold a screen? Then you look for the right gear for fixing the screen. The holder must fit on one side to the shape of the screen, and on the other side, it must be sturdy enough to be fixed to the wall. Next, you need the right screws and drywall anchors, a drilling machine, and drilling needles.
But after buying those items, there is still no visible result, other than time and money spent and items littering the floor. There remain still some things to learn before you can drill the right holes in the right place of the wall, fix the holder, and hang the screen.
If you call a professional, they fix the screen for you in a few minutes. Why? Because they have the right tools and materials. And they know how to employ them. The expert has already built enough leverage to get satisfactory results quickly. Indeed, the success path is all about building leverage.
Delegation and Focus
The secret of delegation and focus helps you reach the lift-off point of the learning curve much faster. If you concentrate on a few activities, you really enjoy, excellence joins you quickly. Otherwise, you try to become an expert in everything. That leads straight to mediocrity. Delegating the tasks you do not enjoy allows you to focus on your strengths. How? Pay someone to hang the screen on the wall, or to edit a video, while you continue to refine and tweak your message.
If you can’t afford outsourcing, borrow or buy tools that make the task easier and provide reasonable results even for those who do not excel in the task. There is no need to be perfect in everything.
Delegation and Focus
The secret of delegation and focus helps you reach the lift-off point of the learning curve much faster. If you concentrate on a few activities you really enjoy, excellence joins you quickly. Otherwise, you try to become an expert in everything. That leads straight to mediocrity. Delegating the tasks you do not enjoy allows you to focus on your strengths. How? Pay someone to hang the screen on the wall, or to edit a video, while you continue to refine and tweak your message. More about that in How to Build Relationships.
If you can’t afford outsourcing, borrow or buy tools that make the task easier and provide reasonable results even for those who do not excel in the task. There is no need to be perfect in everything.
This is the text version of the Success and Inner Growth Episode 30, The Success Path. Listen and subscribe at https://podcasts.chavavo.com or at any major podcasting app, created by Johannes Stockburger. If you wish to talk personally with me about your path to success, join me at the monthly Chavavo Publishing Office Hours. Find the link below in the show notes.
