Have you ever watched a movie in which there is an ancient secret or relic that provides the hero with superpowers? Well, in this story we are about to see, we will uncover a 100-year old method that provided its users with great power to be efficient and productive.
The 1 Billion Dollars Meeting
One day, back in 1918, a productivity consultant named Ivy Lee was interviewing Charles M. Schwab, President of the Betheleim Steel Corporation, the largest ship builder and the second-largest steel producer in America at the time. Charles M. Schwab was one of the richest men in the world.
Ivy Lee outlined his organization’s services to Schwab and ended by saying: with our service, you’ll know how to manage your business better.
To which Schwab replied: “I’m not managing as well now as I know how to. What we need is not knowing, but more doing, not knowledge, but action. If you can give us something that can enable us to do the things we already know we ought to do, I’ll gladly listen to you and pay you anything within reason that you ask.
“Fine” answered Lee, “I can give you something in 20 mins that will step up your action in doing by at least 50%. Schwab was interested, so Lee handed Schwab a blank note sheet from his pocket and told him:
- Write down the six most important tasks you need to do tomorrow.
- Now number them in the order of their importance. (Prioritize)
- First thing tomorrow morning look at item one and start working on it, until it is finished. Then, move on to the second task.
- Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.
- Repeat this process every working day.
Lee went on and added:
“Don’t be concerned if you only finished 1 or 2 tasks. You will be working on the most important ones. The others can wait. If you can’t finish them all by this method, you couldn’t have with any other method either, and without some system, you’d probably not even have decided which was the most important. Do this every working day and after you have convinced yourself of the value of this system, have your men try it. Try it as long as you wish, and then send me a check for what you think it was worth.”
As the story goes, Lee offered his method to Schwab for free, and after three months, Schwab was so pleased with the results he wrote Lee a check for $25,000 — the equivalent of about $400,000 today.
In addition, in five years after the interview, by using this method, it helped Schwab to make $100 Million dollars (equivalent to approximately $1.06 Billion dollars today!).
So, if it worked for one of the wealthiest man of his time, it can help you too. One of the great things about this method is its simplicity. You can start using it right away. Just follow the steps described every day with consistency, and you will see your productivity skyrocket.