About 20 years ago I noticed our squad was beating the pants off the newer, shinier, better development that opened a mile closer to campus. The pricing wasn’t that different with the new place being maybe 8% more than us per month. They should have owned us and I dwelled on the reasons why they hadn’t.
They bought bigger ads. Their staff was prettier than ours. They spent $10k on pool parties while we spent $500. Their bus stop was better. They were closer to shopping.
It shouldn’t have been close. These guys were counting on their status to carry them. We buried them alive.
The concept of the 10,000 things was born at that moment.
A full-time worker is at the job for a little over 2000 hours per year. If you do five “things” per hour (one every 12 minutes) that’s 10,000 things. Smile on the phone. Proofread an email. Greet a customer. Consult with a co-worker. Make an ad. Make a decision. Whatever; You’ll do 10,000 things per year.
At the end of the year, the quality value of your 10,000 things vs. your competition is the difference. For your business, it’s the combined total of everyone. You don’t win on the strength of 2 or 3 decisions. You win on the combined quality value of your 10,000 actions each year. And that’s just the stuff you do on the clock. If you take into account the other 8 waking hours of your day, that’s 20,000 things that can impact your chance to win.
And most of these things are invisible. No one sees more than a couple hundred, tops. So it’s easy to cheat yourself.
Going back to 20 years ago, our crew was 5 deep (4 guys, 1 girl), all full-time, and we hustled. We knew people’s names and shook hands. We were enthusiastic. We dove for ringing phones. We hunted like a pod of orcas. We sold ourselves, as much as the community, every minute, every day. Those poor rich bastards down the street never stood a chance.
About that Life
Someone asked Muhammad Ali how many sit-ups he did in training and Ali replied that he didn’t know – he only started counting when it hurt. Michael Jordan became the G.O.A.T. when he improved the 10,000 things of the role-players around him. Lebron couldn’t do it. Barkley couldn’t do it. Ewing couldn’t do it. MJ did it all without anyone watching. He didn’t start counting until it hurt.
Mobb Deep said it in Shook Ones, and Eminem arguably made the statement far more famous at the end of 8 Mile – “Ain’t no such things as halfway crooks.”
A halfway crook is someone who dabbles. Someone who wants to play dress-up and get the benefits of status without making the sacrifice to become the genuine article. Mom’s spaghetti.
The road to greatness isn’t glorious, it’s grimy. There’s only math.
You can sell dreams. You can pass off gimmicks as greatness. But it’s your 10,000 things that will determine if you’re about that life. Every action counts. It all gets tallied by the universe.
What kind of life are you about?
Robert H Myers 
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