Why Small Win Matters (Hint: The Power of Compounding)

Today I had an epiphany moment. In the book Delivering Happiness, a book about how Tony Shieh built Zappos from zero sales to a 1 Billion dollar company,  one of the executives there describes one of the management philosophy of continuous improvement. It is illustrated in a very cool way: 

“Think about what it means to improve just 1% per day and build upon that every single day. Doing so has a dramatic effect and will make us 37x better, not 365% (3.65x) better at the end of the year. “

To explain why it is 37x better, a simple fact is laid out:

“If you start out with $100 at the beginning of the year and you were able to increase what you have by 1% every single day, at the end of the year, you would have $3,778.34 = $100 * (1 + 1%) ^ 365. That is 37.78x what you had at the beginning of the year. Get that 1% every single day!”

Yes, this is the power of compounding. But the math draws a such a beautiful link with “the Progress Principle”, which states that the number one driver of a positive inner work life, and the key to motivated, engaged, and productive employees, is making progress on meaningful work, even if that progress is a small win. Even if it is a small win, as long as you keep doing it, i.e., keep making progress, in the long run, it will become a big progress!

In fact, our Chinese ancient wisdom always gets it thousands of years back, which can be summarized in one sentence: “Dripping water cuts stones.”

In retrospect, I am falling short. For example, I am so close to finish one of books, but I just cannot seem to find that little amount of time every day to do that little work. I hope today’s lesson will bring me back on track. Keep improving. Keep making progress. Keep at it.