0 Compound Effect

_25.7.2021_ Every success is the result of compound effect. In other words, Aristotle said that 'excellent is not a single action, it's a habit. My English and Mandarin skill today are also the sum total of my efforts in the past. In Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, he believed that to master a skill, it needed about ten thousand hours deliberate practice. The number is debatable but the message is clear that a lot of efforts needed to master a skill. What seems easy is not easy at all. For example, to run a marathon what you need to do is just put one feet in from of the other but how many people can do it successfully. To finish reading a book is merely one word after another, but how many people can do it? The difficult part is not doing it, but how to build the habit and do it every single day. Usain Bolt said, "Competition is the easy part. The real work is done behind the scenes. When the world sleeps or relaxes, you work." In other book I read, it takes ten times more efforts than what you expected to get your goal. What is easy on the paper, it's not easy in practice. You want to try intermittent fasting, and guess what, you fail sooner rather than later. You make a New Year resolution, and it's broken by the end of February. Who doesn't want to be successful? We all want it. Yet who really do ten times effort than the initial expected effort? Less than 1% people would do that. When you lose a war and look around, still you can't see the enemy. It's inside you. When you make a decision, it's often between comfort and discomfort. You will choose comfort 99% of the time. You will not push yourself hard enough to taste the pain of hard work. Success and failures are not permanent conditions. People often measure them with money. More money means more success. If I write a totally bad book and people love it, I will get a lot of money. If i wite the best book but people do not like it, I get nothing. It's just opinion and not necessarily the good one. Einstain said that one should not aim to be the man of success, but should aim to be the man of value. A scientist maybe live in poverty while a criminal maybe live in luxury. When something goes wrong or gets difficult, the first thought is to give up. And people just give up like that. They do not play long term game. The quit and play another game and another and another. They think they have worked hard but they are just unlucky. They see people who work much less than them can be successful. They envy the result but not the process. Some people seem to get success (which is money) easily. Some others work as hard or ever harder and get almost nothing. It's easy to make assumption and judgment and then give up. In term of skill, everyone starts from zero. Skill is not inherited. People are limited by their own believes. People have studied the success principle for centuries. More books and seminars about it, videos and programs discuss it, but still only few people have the privilege to be successful. Money becomes the center of human life. Of course more people are wealthier today than a hundred years ago. It doesn’t follow that they are happier. More and more people are lonely and unmarried to pursue success first. What they truly want is love and attention, respect and kindness. They think money will solve all their problems. I also want to be successful and live comfortable life. It would be nice to have a great wealth. After reading so many books about self-developments and self-help I think I know how to be rich without being lucky. First, I should not work for others. Second, I should start my own business whatever it is. Third I should learn a skill and be the best on it so I can create the best product that is needed by society. The last I should find the right team and work as hard as possible. If I work as a teacher in a school, the maximum income I get is around ten million rupiahs. If I start my own business, I can get unlimited income. Yet to work for others is more secure and easier. So people choose to work for others. They work hard from seven to three to earn just enough to pay the monthly bill. They love their freedom and courage to be independence. I know that no one will ever value me more than I value myself. There was time when I worked in my best friend's small business and she didn't see me as a friend anymore, I turned to be merely a worker. When I had some urgent family matter and absence from work, she would not allow it. Business is business, friend is friend. I can understand this. Suddenly a person turns into a number. When I started a business that is not successful yet, people will look down on me. After years with no good result, the best option is to quit and come back to work for seven to three in an office. That is how people fail. They are not patient with the result and impatient with the work. The work must be done every single day for years and the result must be waited patiently. It likely will come in fifteen twenty years. Knowing this principle is a great comfort for me. It's compound effect to grow slowly like a tree.