One of the greatest minds of the 20th Century – “ a philosopher and a scientist”; Albert Einstein said; “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is insanity”. A sizeable number of literatures have interpreted this quote to mean that if you want to change your life, you must change what you are doing. If your business is tanking, it’s time to see if there is an alternative path you could guide your venture along. The more I read the quotation, the more I disagree with the above assertion. Albert Einstein, a man who has won so many accolades from outstanding school of thoughts like the Time Magazine’s Man of the Century, could not have made this quote from the interpretations made by these literatures. The New York Times issue of 27th May, 2009 revealed a question asked Albert Einstein; “what the greatest invention of all time was?” His answer was “compound interest”.
For you to experience compound interest, you must do the same thing over and over again through a protracted period of time. During the challenging periods of not working in a formal organization, I was comforted by God, every time I was tempted; one of the stories that flashed my mind was in the bible; it was about some entrepreneurs, who dealt in fishing; on a particular day, they had done all they could, but result was not in sight. Frustrated and dejected, a stranger asked them to lend him their boat and they obliged. After using the boat to address some people, the stranger asked them to do the same thing they have been doing all day. Naturally, they complained but did it anyway, the result was the opposite of what they experienced earlier on; this was how it was reported in the book of Luke; “when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break.”
Compound interest is actually one of the greatest powers in the universe; it always starts so slowly and ridiculous that it is ignored by a lot of people. One of the best examples of compound interest that I was told was from an Agel proponent named Sola Popoola; he cited a 30 day experiment; if you live in Lagos and you were asked to fly to Abuja to collect one naira knowing that if you come every day, the money you would collect would double the previous amount. This means if you fly to Abuja on Monday to collect N1; on Tuesday, you would collect N2; on Wednesday, you would collect N4; on Thursday, you would collect N8, etc. Would you prefer take this round trip to Abuja everyday for 30days or you would rather just take one million naira now. Let’s face it, why should anyone stress himself everyday to do the first scenario when he can just take the one million naira now and the amount you are going to collect in the first scenario appears ridiculous. If you patiently do the Arithmetic, you would realize that the first scenario would not just break your account but it is the true path to freedom.
This is how the figure goes:
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, 32768, 65536, 131072, 262144, 524128, 1048256, 2096512, 4192034, 8386048, 16772096, 33544192, 67088384, 134176768, 268353536, 536707072
At the end of the 30 days, you will be making approximately 537 Million Naira; even if the round trip flight is 50K daily which is equivalent to 1.5 Million Naira; it is coins compared to what you stand to gain. This is exactly how compound interest works; it looks ridiculous and ordinary at the beginning but spirals into something larger than you can imagine: The key is constancy! The ability to stay true to something you believe despite the external reception and perception. There is nothing as discouraging as doing the same thing again and again especially if you a company executive being told when to work and when to lunch; boredom sets in because the initial challenge has been resolved; it seems like you are moving like a zombie but whatever you are doing at the moment lies the seed to your destiny. The ability to see the importance of what you are doing lies in the compound interest perspective. If you put a different perspective to what you are doing at the moment, you would see amazing results.
Your thoughts should not be focused on change but on the energies that can be harnessed in what you are doing at the moment. I know it’s kind of difficult like the fish entrepreneurs that toiled all night and caught nothing and are told to do the same thing they have been doing. I can imagine their thoughts when they were told; “this guy is insane; does he have an idea what it takes to do what I do; I have tried this business and I know the inside out of it, it does not work in Nigeria; people are just not feeling it as they should; I am chasing a pin in the hay stack because nobody has ever achieved in these fields”. You can give all the excuses you want but changing what you do does not solve the problem because what you are changing to poses its own sets of challenges; and if you have not developed the ability to go through challenges and be successful, then you are just taking unnecessary journeys like the Israelites chasing the promise land.
The catch clause is; “launch to the deep”; go deeper than you have always been doing because there is gold in it. When it feels like you have exhausted all the options, it’s time to get a new eye. It’s time to adopt the compound interest perspective; no matter how insignificant it appears, just continue doing it. It is the constancy that breeds the power; you don’t have to pray 1 hour on Sunday and forget to pray till the next Sunday; just take as little as 10 minutes every day to speak and listen to your Heavenly father. Remember, whatever you do, there is a deeper level you have not touched that is why the problem persists; you can harness the fish entrepreneurs principle; “give whatever you have to God despite your current situation and listen to His perspective on the issue; it would definitely shift your perception and your face would be crammed with smiles.
It has been a wonderful year; this piece ends the articles for this year. Thank you very much for staying with me through the year; I really do appreciate it. “I cannot go without wishing you a wonderful Yuletide season and a Happy New Year in advance. I would also leave you with this quote from Albert Einstein to ponder on; “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, I am not sure about the former”.
For those who are going to be spending times with family; I would suggest five great films of 2009 that would improve your perspective and make for great entertainment this holiday. You could either watch it at the cinema or via the Mobile Moviz:
Avatar
2012
The Blind Side
Inglourious Basterds
9
