Time is important!!
Whether you are the world’s richest person or broke and out of work–time is your most valuable asset. By eating right, exercising and driving carefully, you might increase your time on earth by a few years, but only a few. So in order to achieve the things you want to achieve in life, it is important that you manage the time you have wisely.
“The TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLAR Idea”
According to Mary Kay Ash of Mary Kay fame this story took place around the turn of the last century—about 1900.At that time the..
Average yearly income…………………………………….$703
DOW Average……………………………………………………..49
New Home (median price)……………………………..$2,200
New Car (average cost)…………………………………..$1,157
Milk (quart)………………………………………………………..7¢
Bread (loaf)…………………………………………………………4¢
Steak (pound)…………………………………………………….15¢
Stamp…………………………………………………………………2¢
Charles Schwab was President of the then fledgling Bethlehem Steel Company. The small steel company was struggling due to its inefficiency and poor sales. Mr. Schwab was of course a very busy man and had little time to waste with sales people. One day Mr. Ivy Lee (a business consultant) made a call on the company and asked if he might have a few minutes of Mr. Schwab’s time. He was met with reluctance but persisted and was granted a short interview with the busy business executive.
“Ok” Mr. Schwab said “What do you have in mind?”. The optimistic Mr. Lee told Schwab that if he would allow him to spend only fifteen minutes with him and each of his managers he (Lee) could increase the efficiency of his entire company and that Schwab and his managers would learn to “manage better.”
The indignant Schwab said, “I’m not managing as well now as I know how? What we need around here is not more “knowing” but more doing, not knowledge but action!” If you can give us something to pep us up to do the things we ALREADY KNOW we ought to do, I’ll gladly pay you anything you ask.”
“By the way, what do you propose to charge me for your services?” asked Schwab. Mr. Lee replied, “Nothing, unless it works. I will provide the service and in three months you can send me a check for whatever you feel it was worth to you. “Mr. Schwab, thinking he had little to lose, shook Lee’s hand and the deal was made.
Lee indeed spent only about fifteen minutes with Schwab and each of his executives. At each meeting Lee asked each manager to do the following:
At the end of each day they were to:
- Write the six most important things for the next day
- Mark the most important item with a #1
- The second with a #2 and so on until all were marked
- First thing the next morning–start working on task #1
- Upon completion, check off the item
- Immediately start on the next task
Only a few weeks passed when Mr. Lee received a letter from the Bethlehem Steel Company. Inside the envelope, Mr. Lee found a check in the amount of $25,000.00 and a note from Schwab saying the lesson was the most profitable from a money standpoint he had ever learned.
Do you think that possibly efficiency and sales had increased at Bethlehem Steel? In the five years that followed, Schwab turned the unknown Bethlehem Steel Company into the largest independent steel producer in the world and Schwab became a millionaire a hundred times over. Charles Schwab became the best known steel man alive at that time.
Many successful business people have used this simple formula to take control of their time and manage their business more effectively. My real estate business has profited greatly by using this method and I believe that any real estate investor will increase their chances of success dramatically by putting this time management system into use.
