Success Is A Performance Curve
If you've been in the personal development world for any length of time, then I'm sure you've heard that success is not a straight line.
We all want success to be a straight line… and the conflict between our desires and reality can make us quit.
We throw in the towel out of anger, frustration, and disgust.
To prevent us from doing this, the personal development world tells us that success really looks like a jumbled mess.
Personally, I find this deeply depressing. Why would I want to work relentlessly hard to have a successful year this year, only for my business to take a nose dive next year?
The truth is that success is a performance curve.
The graphic below shows a performance curve and the effect that long term commitment and perseverance will have on your business.
The good news about a performance curve is that hard work over time leads to exponentially greater rewards.
That should be the drum that the personal development world bangs because it's the truth… and the truth will set you free!
So, let’s take a look at the performance curve in action in the real world.
Winner Takes All
With a performance curve, you may win by a small margin and take home 90% of the money!
The best example of this is the 100 meter Olympic Champion.
Usain Bolt’s win in Beijing catapulted him into Forbes’ top 100 sports stars making him the ONLY track athlete to make the top 100.
As a result of his victory Bolt signed a sponsorship deal with Puma believed to be worth £21m over 4 years. A string of other lucrative contracts followed with brands like Virgin and Visa.
So how much did Usain Bolt win by?
In athletics terms, it was a huge victory. When you see the clock, the result may shock you.
Usain Bolt – 9.69 seconds
Richard Thompson – 9.89 seconds
Walter Dix – 9.91 seconds
Churandy Martina – 9.93 seconds
Asafa Powell – 9.95 seconds
Michael Frater – 9.97 seconds
Marc Burns – 10.01 seconds
Darvis Patton – 10.03 seconds
The reality is that Usain Bolt ran 2 tenths of a second faster than Richard Thompson and earned £40 million more!
The Olympic 100 meters is the most extreme example of the performance curve so let’s look at golf.
The Performance Curve In Golf
Let’s look at the PGA Tour Money List for 2017 – 2018.
#1. Justin Rose - $18,130,678
#2. Bryson DeChambeau - $10,094,489
#3. Dustin Johnson - $9,957,352
#4. Justin Thomas - $9,394,821
#5. Tiger Woods - $8,443,841
Justin Rose took home $8 million more than Bryson DeChambeau who was in second place.
The earnings gap between second and fifth place is $1.5 million yet the earnings gap between first and second is $8 million!
That’s the performance curve in action.
I could go on and on with example after example showing the impact of the performance curve on wealth creation. But I think you get the point.
At the far end of the curve lies exponentially high rewards.
But…
At the start of the curve lies weeks or months of graft for little if any rewards.
Is that something to get depressed about?
No!
It’s a universal truth that you can’t escape. Just like gravity.
If you’re going to win the game, you have to play by the rules. To play by the rules, you first have to know the rules.
The performance curve shows you the rules of the game. It shows you the reality. That financial success does not come overnight. It comes from months or years of dedicated effort. This truth gives you a simple choice….
Focus on mastering your craft or quit!
The Bridge Between Imagination And Reality Is Skill
In her book The Creative Habit, choreographer Twyla Tharp states that the bridge between imagination and reality is skill. She notes that in ballet, the best dancers spend the most focused attention on the fundamentals. It is the best dancers that work the hardest on their craft. That’s what makes them the best.
How much time do you spend working on your craft?
How much time do you spend learning and perfecting the fundamentals of your craft?
Your success lies in the answers to those 2 questions.
And you might be thinking…
What Are The Business Fundaments?
Success in any business comes down to these 3 things:
- Can you make it?
- Can you sell it?
- Can you count the money?
I’m going to assume that you are really good at making it. By making it, I mean delivering your service or producing your product.
Chances are, you’ve spent decades getting really good at making it.
But…
Can you sell it?
If you can't sell your product or service, then you don't have a business.
How much time have you spent learning how to sell your product or service? If the answer is not much, then you have an instant success lever to pull.
Can you count the money?
Many business owners jokingly say I'll worry about counting the money when I start making money.
There is some truth in that, and if you are a consult with 5 clients that you invoice on a monthly basis, and you have zero costs, then counting the money is easy.
If you have a coffee shop, and you make hundreds of transactions a day, and you need to buy stock on a daily or weekly basis, then counting the money is critical. You need to know on a daily or weekly basis if you are making a profit.
So if your business is not developing at the speed of your ambition, the chances are that you need to improve your kill in one of the business fundamentals.
Recognise that fact and then take the next step to learn the skills to build your dream business.
Finally, remember the truth about the performance curve. That exponential success comes after months or years of commitment and perseverance.
The success that you want may be taking longer to achieve than you hoped, but that does not mean that you have failed. It just means you need a longer-term view of your business.
So, after demonizing the personal development world, I’d like to leave you with this quote from Tony Robbins:
Most people vastly overestimate what they can achieve in a year… and they vastly underestimate what they can achieve in a decade.
In that quote, Tony Robbins is talking about the performance curve and the success that comes from long term commitment, determination, and perseverance.
Now It’s Your Turn
The bridge between where you are today, and your dream business is skill.
Which of the business fundamentals will make the biggest difference to your business?
Get clear on that. Then decide if you are going to learn this skill or if you are going to outsource it to a consultant or a member of staff.
Make a commitment to yourself to find the consultant that can make the difference in your business or commit to learning the skills yourself.
Then get busy working on your commitment.
If you've found this useful, then please leave a comment below.
If you know a business owner with a fantastic product or service that struggles to get their voice out there, then please share this with them.
Until next time…
Carpe diem
Roland Eva
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About The Author
I’m a copywriter and business growth trainer, mentor and consultant.
For the last 5 years, I’ve helped authors, coaches, mentors, consultants, software developer and health professionals to sell products and services in industries as diverse as property, technology, finance, personal development, business opportunity, weight loss, and alternative health.
These products and services have ranged in price from £5 to £12,000. My most successful campaign made £672,989 in just 9 days. I took that result and transformed it into a simple repeatable system. A system that I teach to ambitious entrepreneurs that want to make money on demand without a sales team.
Why do I want to help other business owners? Because my marketing journey began when I lost my first business, a photography and graphic design studio. The pain of watching my business slowly die, and being powerless to do anything about it, motivated me to discover how promotional messages can make money on demand without a sales team.
Today my mission is to prevent every business owner from suffering through the same pain as I did. I’d like to take entrepreneurs on the joy ride that comes with having a proven system to make money on demand and to relax with the security of knowing where your next sale is coming from.