Get To Grips With The Power Of Doubling! Then Watch Your Financials Scale To New Heights

First you must believe in yourself…

Tonight I was responding to a Medium writer who was discussing his earning, a few cents each month for the first couple of months, to suddenly earning $22 in one month.

Did he realize the significance of his newfound wealth, I wondered?

He didn’t. For the amount of effort he’d put it, he felt it was disappointing.

I get that. There’s little one can do with $22.

Here in Australia we can buy four coffees.

But this article is NOT about earning enough to buy a few coffees, or the same amount of doughnuts.

But it is about perspective, something we don’t necessarily think about.

I’ve been writing on Medium for 18 months now, and but for a few months when I dared to think I’d discovered The Yellow Brick Road, I haven’t earned very much.

YET, give or take the last few days, I have posted regularly, not confining myself to niches, but adopting the catholic approach.( James Knight, that just means universal.. but you, clever soul that you are, already know that!).

I don’t enjoy being constrained about topics, so catholic is my modus operandi.

That may be one of the reasons for my poor return on effort! Who knows?

I was thinking about this when reading this writer’s despair.

Suddenly I was transported back to the classroom…

Back to teaching and a task I set for my year four students. Even though it was not so long ago, there was little effort, or indeed appreciation, that teaching students how to be financially literate, was probably way more important than understanding the theorem of Pythagoras.

Even today, precious little is taught on the subject, and I see many parents picking up the slack on the issue.

So, I wanted my students to be just a tiny bit more aware not just of of their spending habits, but also of their savings, and so, I shelved homework for a few nights and gave them a meaningful task instead.

I invited them to join me in a financial experiment.

I challenged them to commit to one home chore, every day for one month, starting free on the fist day, five cents on the second day, doubling thereafter.

I’d made up an information sheet for parents, complete with a space to formally agree to their taking part in the experiment.

With agreements in place (not by ALL parents, of course!), we started to work out, as a class, whether this would be a worthwhile experiment, or not.

Let’s think about this. On day two the students were to be paid five cents.

Ho hum!

Day three would be ten cents.

Day four twenty cents.

Day five, forty cents.

Say six, eighty cents.

Day seven, $1.60.

Day eight, $3.20.

It was at roughly this stage that I witnessed the popping of eyes, and incredible excitement.

‘My parents can never afford this!’ one cried. ‘OMG!’.

I’ll leave you to do the rest of the calculations, but suffice it to say, few parents would have been able to pay the bill for the month.

Such is the power of doubling.

This was a huge lesson for my students!

So this gets back to earnings on Medium. We start out earning so little. It hardly buys one cup of coffee. It’s humbling.

But imagine this

You’re writing on Medium and your first month pays you twenty cents, the second month, maybe much the same. But what if on your third month you earn $2.00? It’s not a lot, but in percentage terms its one thousand per cent.

Tell me one investment that pays you that kind of return in just three months. Yes I know, some investors can end up being dead jammy, but it’s not usual!

We talk about getting into the $100 per month, bracket, and to me that is attainable. But you have to work hard for it. You have to work out what the big lads are doing and beat them at their game.

Or you can just leave. It’s your choice.

But before you kick the can because you’re sore and I haven’t provided the GRQ (get rich quick)scheme you maybe were looking for, let me tell you this story.

It’s NOT just about doubling your money

Some years ago I had an interview with a Chinese parent whose child I taught. He was and is, a highly-successful businessman.

When he arrived in Australia, he spoke no English, but managed to get a job in a restaurant, washing dishes.

As he washed the dishes, he listened to English lessons. He dreamed of one day being able to buy a home, something small, but a home nonetheless.

He went from washing dishes, to driving cabs, to getting a job in finance, and subsequently, to travel.

What shocked him was the number of business people who left their coins in the trays they used to passed through security. Sometimes they were leaving behind several dollars.

He vowed and declared he would never do that.

This man went on to be a highly-successful financial consultant, and for many years after, even when flying business-class, he made it HIS business to collect any unclaimed coins from the trays left behind by others.

He told me he’d never ever forgotten the fear of losing everything.

“Wealth starts in small ways,” he told me.

To that end he set up training workshops, and provided shelter for young Asians arriving in Australia, while he too was building his own business, because…

‘Wealth is not to feed our egos but to feed the hungry and to help people help themselves.’

We can emulate Bill’s principles by reaching out to other writers on Medium while we too build our Medium success.

Your earning a few cents, to two dollars, to fifty dollars or more, is actually an impressive financial gain. Don’t think about it in terms of what you can do with it.

Instead, focus on growth.

Medium is an excellent stomping ground to grow your business. It’s got little to do with joining the $100 club!