Invisible Results: What's Moving You Closer to (or Further From) Success Is Smaller Than You Think

"It's choice - not chance - that determines your destiny."

By Rich Schefren

If you'd drop dead tomorrow of a heart attack if you ate a greasy meal today, would you do it?

Of course not. Yet heart disease is the leading cause of death, responsible for 25.4% of all deaths in the United States alone.

Or how about fastening your seat belt? Were you to be immediately ejected from the car if you turned the ignition without your seat belt fastened, wouldn't you make sure you buckled up? You'd be an idiot not to, right?

Yet failure to wear a seat belt contributes to more fatalities than any other driving behavior.

It's not that people are stupid. It's that, in most cases, whether they make the right choice or the wrong choice, it doesn't instantly make a noticeable difference.

The same can be said of business decisions. Whether you make the right choice or the wrong choice, you don't see immediate results. And that can be deadly for entrepreneurs.

The more you do, the more anxious you get for a signal - something... anything telling you you're on the right track.

You want to know... Is this working?

And when you don't see any visible results... you're likely to abandon activities that are working but not yet showing signs of success.

It's a little like the joke about the guy who swam across 90% of the English Channel and then turned around because he was tired.

Remember, success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Meaning it comes about gradually, over time. Moreover, it's often undetectable until all of a sudden it's totally obvious.

It all depends on what you are doing (or not doing) now.

Now you might be wondering... How long until you actually see results? How long before you have the business success you're seeking?

Here's the best answer I can give you: Chances are it will take longer than you want it to... BUT when it does arrive, you'll be astonished at how quickly it seemed to happen.

Small Causes Compounded Create Huge Effects

Let me ask you something... Would you rather have one million dollars, or a penny doubled every day for 31 days?

What if I told you that, after 31 days, the penny would have turned into $10,737,418.24!

It's amazing, isn't it? But it's true. A single penny can turn into a fortune in just 31 days. And it's all because of the power of compounding. In business, we call this effect momentum - a series of causes that rocket your business into hyper-growth and stellar profits.

Here's how it's described in the bestselling business book From Good to Great by Jim Collins.

"Picture a huge, heavy flywheel - a massive metal disk mounted horizontally on an axle, about thirty feet in diameter, two feet thick, and weighing about 5,000 pounds. Now imagine that your task is to get the flywheel rotating on the axle as fast and for as long as possible.

"Pushing with great effort, you get the flywheel to inch forward, moving almost imperceptibly at first. You keep pushing and, after two or three hours of persistent effort, you get the flywheel to complete one entire turn.

"You keep pushing, and the flywheel begins to move a bit faster, and with continued great effort, you move it round a second rotation. You keep pushing in a consistent direction. Three turns... four... five... six... the flywheel builds up speed... seven... eight... you keep pushing... nine... ten... it builds momentum... eleven... twelve... moving faster with each turn... twenty... thirty... fifty... a hundred.

"Then at some point - breakthrough! The momentum of the thing kicks in your favor, hurling the flywheel forward, turn after turn... whoosh!... its own heavy weight working for you. You're pushing no harder than the first rotation, but the flywheel goes faster and faster. Each turn of the flywheel builds upon work done earlier, compounding your investment of effort. A thousand times faster, then ten thousand, then a hundred thousand. The huge heavy disk flies forward with almost unstoppable momentum.

"Now suppose someone came along and asked, "What was the one big push that caused this thing to go so fast?" You wouldn't be able to answer; it's a nonsensical question. Was it the first push? The second? The fifth? The hundredth? No! It was all of them added together in an overall accumulation of effort applied in a consistent direction."

So stop looking for "the one big push" that'll get the flywheel of your business going and growing fast.

That's the magic we all want to believe in. After all, nobody wants to buy a weight loss book titledHunger & Hard Work: Eat a Lot Less, Exercise a Lot More. But if you're going to be successful, you've got to stop allowing yourself to be a victim of this sort of thinking.

Little Things Matter More Than You Realize

My point? Your success will come through all the little things you either do or don't do on a daily basis.
So, let me ask you this... What's it going to take for you to start doing all the little things that'll start to push your success flywheel forward?
When are you going to stop buying into the fantasy of the one big push?
When are you going to realize that to create the success you desire and build the business of your dreams, you don't have to do impossible, extraordinary, superhuman things.
But you have to do something.
Remember, success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.

Easy to Do... Easy Not to Do

It's easy to nod your head and say you get it. And then, when you are done reading this essay, return to your pursuit of the "home run."
Don't do it. Have faith that the process of simple, positive actions repeated over time will get you everything you've ever wanted.
Because it's true.
I'm sure you've heard this maxim: "Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do."
Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs mistakenly believe it refers to Herculean efforts and not the small stuff.
And they ignore the thousands of small, seemingly insignificant actions that success is really built on.
So let's rewrite that famous maxim:
Successful people do the simple, easy-to-do things that unsuccessful people don't do because they don't recognize them as what really matters.
Please. Write that down. Put it on your desk. Carry it in your wallet. Because if you get this, really embrace it, and - most important - live it, your life will radically change for the better.
It boils down to this: The difference between success and failure - between achieving the success you want and settling for less than you desire and deserve - relies 100% on whether you choose to do those little, "insignificant" actions.
Your current results are a testament to the choices you've made thus far. And your future results will be determined by the choices you make from this point forward.