“It’s not whether you’re right or wrong that’s important,” George Soros once said, “but how much money you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong.” Soccer fans know that a 90 minute game comes down to one or two big moments. That’s it.
Jerry Saltz, the art critic, calculated that a successful painter only needs 12 strong supporters throughout their career. Even if most other people just don’t care.
He wrote it this way:
That’s it! Twelve people. Surely your crappy art can fake out 12 stupid people! I’ve seen it done with only three or four supporters. I’ve seen it done with one!
In 1993, Elizabeth Peyton’s New York breakthrough was staged by dealer Gavin Brown, in Room 828 of the Chelsea Hotel…According to the hotel ledger, only 38 people saw the show after the opening. It doesn’t take much. Since then, Peyton has had museum shows all over the world; her works sell for close to a million dollars.
Successful careers—like successful networks—are more about intensity than extensity. Quality over quantity.
Morgan Housel wrote that “By the mid-1930s Disney had produced more than 400 cartoons. Most of them were short, most of them were beloved by viewers, and most of them lost a fortune.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs changed everything.” It made $8 Million dollars in 1938, which today would be $170 Million.
All company debts from the first 400 cartoons—that were failures—got paid off. They bought a new studio, and they won an Oscar.
One big score erased all the small losses and gave them a big stash to grow from.
The stock market is the same. If you follow the S&P 500 for decades, you notice that most of the returns come from the top 7% of companies that win huge. The rest are flat or lose value long-term.
At the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting in 2013 Warren Buffett said he’s owned 400 to 500 stocks during his life and made most of his money on 10 of them. Charlie Munger followed up: “If you remove just a few of Berkshire’s top investments, its long-term track record is pretty average.”
Gary Vee calls it Jab-Jab-Jab-Right Hook. Each jab costs you a small amount of energy compared to the damage done on the opponent. But the right hook is the knockout. It’s what gives you the big win.
That’s what the average day is like for business folk. You try to sell to a hundred people, or a thousand, and most of them won’t buy. But when you find the ten or twenty customers who absolutely love your product, they’ll bring you all your profits.
And they’ll tell all their friends about it. Many of them will be the same people who ignored your ad the first time around.
Big winners heal all the small wounds.
In business and life, learn to ignore the small losses. They’re simply the cost of doing business. Don’t let them determine your decisions.
In other words: think about leverage versus surface area. Focus your energy on the one or two points where your power feels strongest.
Ask yourself before every task: “Is this a place where I have leverage?” and “Is this a person I have leverage with?”
Ed Mylett put it this way: “You are one decision, one relationship, one thought, one emotion, one meeting away… from a completely different life.”
The same applies to beginners and professionals. Insiders and outsiders.
My buddy has a corporate job but was curious about the laundromat business. He knew nothing. Then one day he met a guy who’s a distributor of washing machines to laundromats. The guy took a liking to him and connected him with someone who was selling a laundromat in the area.
This second guy owned 10 of them, and agreed to sell two of them to my buddy. The distributor then told my guy about another laundromat two hours away. Through that connection my buddy now owns three laundromats and gets machines financed at the lowest rates. He’s doing great for himself.
All he needed was to meet the one guy. The one big score that more than pays for the hours and weeks wasted on dead ends.
Milton Hershey had started three other candy companies that failed, but his fourth one was the Lancaster Caramel Company. That company is now Hershey’s, and it made him a fortune compared to the small losses of the first three.
There’s this one book I quote often, because I really do love it. It’s a gem, and even though it’s sold millions of copies, I still think it doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
The book is called The One Thing. And its premise is simple: in every situation, there is always ONE SINGLE THING that will give you most of the results you want. This applies to business, health, relationships—everything.
When someone likes you, they usually like you because of one main quality. Sure, there are probably other little things they really like about you too, but the reason they became your bff, or the reason they fell in love with you, is because of one big thing that makes you great in their eyes.
Think back to your special person: didn’t they get with you because of that one thing you said to them? That one joke that changed their view of you… Or because of that one dance? Or that one adventure? Or because of that one outfit that caught their eye? Or because of that one friend that insisted you two meet? Or that one problem you helped them solve and it showed your kindness.
There was one specific point of leverage that brought you two together.
The reason they put up with your shit: you leaving the toilet seat up, you being late for everything, you chewing too damn loud. Those little things they can overlook, because you have the one BIG thing that keeps them hooked.
One big plus erases all the minuses.
And the one big thing isn’t always earned. It doesn’t make it any less effective.
Why is Paris Hilton rich? Because her parents are rich.
Yea, she went on to become a TV star and influencer, but it all stemmed from her bloodline. Her one big win—winning the parent lottery—made up for all her other shortcomings.
The Universe has a twisted sense of humor.
If you want to win you have to go along with this sense of humor.
Learn to pinpoint your points of leverage. If you can identify this, then focus your energy on this one area that gives you leverage over situations and people. I’m not saying it’ll always be perfect or smooth. What I’m saying is: keep the big wins big and the small losses small. And you’ll be ok.
The big magical moments will erase the whole bunch of annoying small ones.
For business owners, this also applies to time management. We tend to thinly spread out our time instead of focusing on the most important task.
Ask yourself what the big things are which will make up for ignoring the small things. Most of the time it’s simply about hiring the right people. The right managers take work off your plate. But hiring is tricky. Most people don’t get it right. And it can make or break your company.
Other times it’s about landing that one big account.
As an owner, you have to work ON the business, not in the business. Your leverage is in hiring, making decisions, and watching the capital. A big win in any of these areas will make up for the small inefficiencies.
This fact leads us all the way back to what we said earlier: one great connection can change your whole money situation. Everything is relationships. Managing relationships well will open all the doors you need.
And one of those doors will have a big giant prize behind it. A prize that will prove to you all the pain of the small losses don’t really matter now. They were just building suspense.
One big score. One big paycheck. One big love. One big deal. They don’t happen every day, but when they do, they’re right on time. They make everything right. They come with all the glory and money and appreciation that you need to keep growing.
Truth is: you are just one BIG win away from a completely magical life.
