IT has often been said the line, which separates winning from losing, is as fine as a ra-zor's edge -- and it is. Here Bob Proctor is talking about winning in a big way and in all areas of your life. "The Razor's Edge" implies there was not a big difference among people; there was only a big difference in the things they accomplished.
One person "just about" starts a project, the other person starts it. One individual "almost" completes a task, the other does complete it. One person sees an opportunity, the other acts on it. One student "nearly "pass-es the exam, the other does pass it --and although the difference in their marks may be only one percentage point out of a hundred, it is that one point that makes all the difference.
The annals of sport's history are rich with dramatic illustrations of the Razor's Edge concept. For exam-ple, at the Olympic Games, there are eight finalists competing in the one-hundred meter dash, but the runner who wins the Olympic gold medal is frequently only one-tenth of a second faster than the runner who finishes in last place.
Now, you may have grown up with the idea that some people have it and some people do not. Or, because some people are much better than others, they enjoy much more of the abundance of life. But Proctor reiter-ates that this idea is absolutely false!
For you are every bit as good, or as powerful, as anyone you see, know, or even hear about. Remem-ber, since the difference between them and you is only inthe area of accomplishments, and since there is something you can do that will vastly improve the results you are achieving presently, you have the potential to become even more successful than they are.
You may already know how to do what others are doing (if you do not, you can learn), and since your potential power is unlimited, you can do even greater things than they are now doing.
The "something" that you must do to become more successful may not be what you think it is. But whatever it may be, rest assured, you are quite capable of doingit. Always bear in mind, how-ever, that because each person's world is just a little bit different, the something, which you must do, is not necessarily the same thing the person you live with or work with, must do.
Nevertheless, there is no ques-tion that you will eventually find out what it is that you must do. So makeup your mind -- immediate-ly--when you do figure out what that Razor's Edge is for you, you will do it.
Vince Lombardi, former football coach of the outstanding Green Bay Packers football team, described the Razor's Edge con-cept in football very well when he said, "Most games are won or lost in the last two minutes of the first and second half."
But what Lombardi is best remembered for -- with respect to football's Razor's Edge--is the "Second Effort"concept, which he introduced for the edification of his players. In a nutshell, the "Second Effort" concept simply meant, that when a player was initially stopped by the oppos-ing team, he would always surge forward a second time, with the added thrust of a "second effort."
Now, just consider the tremen-dous difference you could create in your own life if you were to adopt a similar mental attitude. For example, if you are a person who is working in sales and currently selling only three units a week, what would the consequences be for you if you were to decide to make one additional sale per week, through a conscientious ap-plication of the second effort concept?
Well, on a weekly basis, it might not appear to be a major breakthrough. However, viewed over the time frame of an entire career, it would actu-ally amount to well over two thousand extra sales.
Moreover, from a monetary stand point, it would mean you would actually receive an extra ten years' income over the span of a forty-year career. Yes, that one sale would be the Razor's Edge difference, which could catapult you into "the big leagues" in your chosen career.
As your awareness becomes increasingly great with respect to "The Razor's Edge" concept, the number of such examples you encounter every day will astound you. As a case in point, just consider how much kindlier you feel towards a particular retail store, where the cashier smiles and "thanks you for your busi-ness," and then asks you to come back "real soon",as compared to one where you are greeted with a stern,"Well, are you going to buy anything or not," attitude.
Most educators will admit--with some coaxing--that the average individual reads at only about a grade six or seven level. The reason for this is we are taught to read by the time we reach grade six or seven, and then we never bother to improve our reading skills beyond that point. You should realize, moreover, that what is true about "reading," is also true of most other skills which we acquire in life.
Once people have become proficient in the basics in any par-ticular field, they usually choose to stop learning, and of course, from that point forward they cease to improve.
Since this is true of most people, it follows that it is only the small minority of people in any given field who will go on to become the acknowledged experts in their chosen vocation. There-fore, they are the people who can demand and who will receive the lion's share of the income in their field.
Taking this information into account, consider the job you are doing presently and ask yourself the following questions: "How good am I at doing it?," and "How much better could I be?" Realize that if you would study your chosen field for one hour per day, in five years' time you would have studied for 45 forty-hour weeks, which amounts to almost a full year of study. Moreover, since you would only be studying for one hour at any given time, you would be able to give the material your undivided attention.
Therefore, it would actually be the equivalent of "a full year" of con-centrated study. This means that by the end of the first year, you would already have put in nine forty-hour weeks of invaluable study time.
Although this amounts to only one hour of study per day, if you were to follow this schedule rigorously, in a relatively short span of time, you would stand among your peers like a giraffe in a herd of field mice.
In fact, when you really think about it, you will soon understand there is not any competition at all, because there are so few people in the race, that even the losers are winners.
Therefore, you need not do a tremendous amount of studying to gain the understanding you require, because again, the difference between knowledge and ignorance, maybe as fine as "the Razor's Edge." Napoleon Hill devoted an entire chapter in his classic book, Think and Grow Rich, to the subject of "persistence." He said, "There may be no heroic con-notation to the word persistence, but the quality is to the character of man, what carbon is to steel."
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
In another part of that same chap-ter, he wrote, "I had the happy priv-ilege of analyzing both Mr. Thomas Edison and Mr. Henry Ford, year by year, over a long period of years, and therefore the opportunity to study them at close range. Therefore, I speak with actual knowledge when I say that I found no quality, save Per-sistence, in either of them, that even remotely suggested the major source of their stupendous achievements."
Proctor believes that there was a tremendous difference in the ac-complishments of these two men, as compared with the accomplishments of most other people. Yet by their own admission, neither of these men were intellectually superior Never-theless, because both men possessed the vital quality of "persistence,"their results in life were invariably superior to those of the masses.
Therefore, perhaps the factor that will catapult you into the "big leagues," which will multiply your income from a material, as well as a psychic point of view, will be your own ability to persist. So the next time you step out to do something, and "the going gets tough," just remember that the Razor's Edge difference for you could well be your own ability to persevere.
Just try one more time--with enthusiasm -- and you could watch your accomplishments go from the very ordinary, to the very extraordi-nary
