The Numbers Don't Lie (John Fuhrman book)

This is an except from John's book "Leading Leaders to Leadership"

Look back over the last few years and ask yourself if you've missed any opportunities. How did you originally hear about them? Were they explained well? Did you understand what you were being shown? Now consider thi. If you doubled a penny every day for 30 days, you'd end up with about 5.3 million dollars. It's a mathemaical fact. No matter how much anyone may argue, the numbers don't lie. It's a simple geometric progression. But what happens when you put people into the equation?

Some People Argue with Logic

Let's say you tell 100 people you will pay them in the above mentioned way for 30 days. You know it works, because you've already done it. And as a leader, you've shared how it works with them. Here's what would probably happen:
The first day of the program everyone is excited about becoming a millionaire like you. they all start working as hard as they can. However, at the end of the day, everyone gets just a penny. There are a few grumbles, but then they remember the millions awaiting them at the end of 30 days.
As they begin the second and third days they find much of the same. All their work is producing minimal results. At the end of the third day each has four cents. Half of them look at the four pennies in their hands, believe what you have is too good to be true, and quit. That leaves you with 50 people to do the work of 100.
The fourth through the seventh days are a bit more difficult because each person left is now doing twice the work. Very little progress has been made and at the end of the first week, each of the remaining 50 has accrued 64 cents. Some won't like it that they are now being paid a single person's share while doing twice the work. Half of them quit. The beginning of the second week finds 25 peoople left.
As they work through the second week, more progress is made, even though each person is now doing the work of four. They have put out a tremendous amount of effort, and by the fourteenth day they have each accrued a total of $81.92. Some of them will look at all they had to do to earn that small amount, decide that it just isn't worth it, so half of them quit. Rounding things off leaves 13 people.
As they begin the third week, things begin to change. All of a sudden there is obvious progress being made. By the end of the week, each one has accrued a total of $10.485.76. For many of them, that's the most money they had ever seen at one time, and they are greatful. However, there are some with sour attitudes who say it's about time they were really paid for their efforts. They just want to go and enjoy the fruits of their labor, so seven more quit. That leaves six.
As the fourth week begins, those who stuck it out are amazed at what is happening. Everything is starting to come together beautifully, in rapid fashion. In fact, they can actually see the end of their tasks. For those who remained, the total paid to each of them by the 28th day is $1,342,177.20. Put your self in their shoes for a moment. Have you ever said "If I had a million dollars I'd....."? Half of the remaining group did just that, so they quit. Now only 3 people are left to handle the work of the final 2 days.
If you've followed the math you'll realize that on the last day each of them would have amassed a total of $5,368,708.80. That's an unvelievably large amount, you might say. Yet when you do the math, you know it is certain to happen. Guaranteed! But if it's such a sure thing, why do you suppose only three people stayed until the end to collect?
It's probably for the same reasons that less than three out of a hundred people ever achieve significant success. Can you spot the reason in the above example? Go back and read it again. Did you notice the one thing all those quitters had in common?
The reason so many give up is why so few people ever achieve their dreams or objectives. They simply lost focus on their destination and followed the crowd. They concentrated on the challenges of the moment and got stuck there. Instead of focusing on the cumulative results they were after---even when those results were guaranteed --- 97 percent of them quit! Amazing, isn't it?