Copy Right -Understanding the art of learning from others -Part 15

The Power of Cumulative Actions.

It was an old metal pole that has become a nuisance, and everyone in the community wanted to get rid of it. Only if it were that easy, it would have been uprooted by the first person at the first attempt. Not so, many people had their fair try and gave up to try again later, while some never again. Pushing, pulling and all sorts of force to get the pole out of the way. It seems not to give way. One day, a young boy came around and in a couple of attempts brought it down. Hurray! He shouted, I did it. He brought it down. Did he? How many people do you think brought the pole down?

You might have witnessed the result of the hard work of friends or colleagues presented, and you think; ‘That is great, but I can do the same, even better.’ A Student may comment about a group project and says; ‘They explained it to me, it is easy I can do it easily.’ Have you ever witnessed the cleaning of a heavily stained surface, and initially thought, it could not be that hard, but changed your mind afterwards when you observed the process? You may have found it to be true. There is usually a change of mind when the details are known.

An adventurer once decided to cut a giant pine tree with an axe. He started the task and was committed to it. He hit the tree hard with the axe and continued until the axe head fell off. He was determined to finish up the task, so he sought for a suitable log to hold the axe head in place. The makeshift solution worked, so he was able to continue the cutting of the tree. He paused to rest when he was tired and also to sharpen his tool. He continued with dedication for over three hours.

He cut deep into a depth of about 80% of the diameter of the tree. He had by this time carved a notch out of the side of the tree facing the felling direction. After a little rest, he decided to call some friends to witness the felling of the tree as he knows the task is near completion. They gathered as he puts in his last efforts, striking the tree from the opposite side a few times. He struck with the axe, not too many times more before the noise of cracking was heard. The tree fell into the river nearby, and the friends applauded the feat. None of them witnessed his beginning; they only saw the ending, which looked so easy and effortless. Some of them judged by the last action and they went away thinking it was easy, but in reality, it was not as easy as they thought. Three hours of labour have gone into the project already. The tree will not come down with just a few of the final strokes. All the strokes were all necessary for the tree to fall.

I found this to be also true in life. We are often only invited to graduation ceremonies, commissioning ceremonies, launching ceremonies, presentations and so on, but that does not give us a picture of the hours of labour invested. It will be deceit to believe that there is nothing more that is required. There is, all the actions add up to produce the success at the end.

Sometimes we neglect some factors that contribute to success. One of them is the power of cumulative action. The last activity is crucial for completion, but without the preceding, the final will not be the concluding action. Every one of them is necessary for the completion of the task, and none should be ignored or neglected.

A doctor may pass a professional exam in his field by preparing for it within six hours, and probably registering to sit it within two weeks. He could achieve that not only because of the six hours of preparation but also all the relevant cumulative learning in all schools attended, college and university. If you attempt to do the same, coming from a dissimilar background or with less experience, and only prepare for six hours, you may not pass, let alone get the same result.

You may have attempted to push a wooden barrier or fence. You may have found that every effort weakens the wood but may not break it. It will eventually break with the last action, but all the previous activities have contributed to the success of the final one, and without them, it would not have succeeded and would not be the last.

Many succeed in business, not just because they have a product but also a cumulative learning through experiences and research must have contributed to their success. Many fail because they start to copy from the end and never knew there was a beginning, which, unfortunately, many people would not advertise anyway. Many have copied successful people by only doing a few of their actions and expecting the full result. There is more in their story; you can only get to understand if you start from their beginning.

I have heard of people that turn up and get some final tips and ideas. They ask a few questions, and they seem to have gotten it all and know what to do from beginning to the end. It does not always work like that. They soon find out that when they try to do the same in their environment, it is not as easy as it seems. They have lost the three hours of labour and struggling to replicate and make sense of the success that happened within the final five minutes.

Life is not always as it seems. There could be more to what you are seeing than meets the eyes. If you desire the same result, you should be willing to study the whole process and understand the power of cumulative actions.

Do not assume. You may be underestimating the actions of others and by so doing missing out on the whole picture or reality of things. It is better to make decisions based on facts than assumptions. You may have been trying only the last set of actions, which may explain why the result is not as you expected. There are times when the seemingly effortless success we see is due to the contributions of others that have made the necessary preliminary actions which made it easy for simple effort to bring out the result. It may be worth considering a holistic point of view to see what others may have contributed to such successes in other circumstances.

You may be on the right track but probably need encouragement to continue. Do not give up. Those that are celebrating today must have started sometime in the past. If you continue on the right track, you will soon get to the finish line and have cause for celebration. It is not just the one, but the combination of all the actions that counts.

To be continued next week, don’t miss it.

I hope you have found this post valuable, please leave a comment below and share with others. Send in your questions or contributions as well if you have any, I will be glad to hear from you.

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