The Art of Living - Issue #20
Charlie Munger, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and his partner Warren Buffett share in the belief that one of the keys to their inordinate success is the simple act of going to bed smarter than when they woke up.
Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Rakuten, shared a similar concept in a LinkedIn post focusing on the first of Rakuten’s Five Principles of Success; Always advance, always improve.
He states:
This is a concept that really excites me because I believe there is so much untapped potential in people. Asking someone to become a genius overnight is not reasonable. But if you told that person, “Improve a little bit every day,” what would those results look like over the course of a year? Ten years? An entire career? The difference is staggering.
And now, here is the secret: You can look at this from a mathematical point of view. Calculate 1.01 to the 365th power. Even if you could only achieve 1 percent improvement each day—1 percent kaizen per day—at the end of one year, your result is thirty-seven times better than when you started. Try it. You have nothing to lose and a 37x improvement to gain.
My own practice is based on the Producer Power Hour concept devised by Garrett Gunderson of Wealth Factory. For the last 4 years, I have developed a daily habit of education through reading and/or audiobooks. While attribution is difficult, I am confident that the knowledge I absorbed has made a significant positive impact in every facet of my life. As you can imagine, I won’t be abandoning this habit anytime soon.
Are you going to bed smarter than when you work up each day?
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