CHAPTER SIX
DON’T FALL FOR THE QUANTUM LEAP
“I am a great believer in luck.
The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.”
— Coleman Cox
There is no “some day.” There’s only today. When tomorrow comes, it will be another today; so will the next day. They all will. There is never anything but today.
Successful people have already grasped the truth that lottery players have not: success is not a random accident. Life is not a lottery.
People who live by the slight edge understand how luck really works. It’s not preparedness meeting opportunity: it’s preparedness, period. Preparedness created by doing those simple, little, constructive, positive actions, over and over. Luck is when that constancy of preparedness eventually creates opportunity.
The truth of breakthroughs and lucky breaks is that, yes, they do happen — but they don’t happen out of thin air. They are grown, like a crop: planted, cultivated, and ultimately harvested.
Here is a great secret that holds the key to great accomplishment: both that “sudden flash” and that “overnight success” were the final, breakthrough results of a long, patient process of edge upon edge upon edge. Any time you see what looks like a breakthrough, it is always the end result of a long series of little things, done consistently over time. No success is immediate or instantaneous; no collapse is sudden or precipitous. They are both products of the slight edge.
A true quantum leap is what happens when a subatomic particle suddenly jumps to a higher level of energy. But it happens as a result of the gradual buildup of potential caused by energy being applied to that particle over time. In other words, it doesn’t “just suddenly happen.” An actual quantum leap is something that finally happens after a lengthy accumulation of slight-edge effort. A real-life quantum leap is not Superman leaping a tall building. A real quantum leap is Edison perfecting the electric light bulb after a thousand patient efforts — and then transforming the world with it.
No matter in what arena, in life or work or play, the difference between winning and losing, the gap that separates success and failure, is so slight, so subtle, that most never see it. Superman may leap tall buildings at a single bound. Here on earth, we win through the slight edge.
Believing in the “big break” is worse than simply being futile.
It’s actually dangerous, because it can keep you from taking the actions you need to take to create the results you want. It can even be lethal.
Can you imagine if every first grader was required to start reading ten pages of a good book a day? How would their finances, their health, their relationships change as adults?
Over the past few decades it’s been amazing to me how many people I’ve been close to have persisted in making fun of my dietary choices, exercise habits, and personal development goals. The “insignificant” little things I’ve been doing every day for years have always struck them as funny, because they couldn’t see the point. They couldn’t see the results coming further on down the path. Today I see these friends and ache for them: many now have failing health, are languishing in poor financial conditions, and seem to have lost their hopes for the future. What they have a hard time seeing is that my good health isn’t an accident, and their poor health isn’t a stroke of bad luck. They don’t see that we all, beach bums and millionaires alike, have gotten to where we are today the exact same way: the slight edge. They are victims of the quantum leap myth.
Our entire health crisis is nothing but one set of little decisions, made daily and compounded daily, winning out over another set of little decisions, made daily and compounded daily.
Once you absorb the slight edge way of being, you’ll stop looking for that quantum leap — and start building it. You’ll stop looking for the miracle, and start being the miracle.
Essential Points from Chapter Six
* Quantum leaps do happen, but only as the end result of a lengthy, gradual buildup of consistently applied effort.
* No success is immediate, no collapse is sudden. They are both the result of the slight edge accruing momentum over time.
* Hoping for “the big break” — the breakthrough, the magic bullet — is not only futile, it’s dangerous, because it keeps you from taking the actions you need to create the results you want.
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