once upon a time when I started my career I sat down at the end of the year and my tax returns were $14,400 12 years later I sat down and did my tax returns and my tax returns were 1,440 th000 I'd increased my income by a hundred times in 12 years and I went back and I started to look at that and I realized that I'd used a formula which I gradually articulated into what I call the th% formula and it's very simple it's based on the law of incremental Improvement Japanese call it the Kaizen
principle the principle of continuous betterment is getting a little bit better every day so I asked the question if you could increase your productivity performance and output by on10th of 1% per day could you do that could you increase your productivity performance and output by one 1,000th in a day and the answer is of course if you were the tiniest bit more efficient or you worked a little bit harder on a more important task you could become a tenth of a percent better in a day well if you did that every single day for a
week you would be one tenth of 1% Time 5 you'd be 1 half of 1% more productive in a week is that possible of course you would say anybody can become that small amount more productive so I said if you did that every week for four weeks you'd be 2% more productive over the course of a month if you did that every day for 133 four-week months in a year Portland and his name is Chris and he came up and he said uh uh Mr Tracy he said do you remember me I said yes he
a nice guy great personality he said well you know that th% formula that you taught uh to me many years ago I said well of course I remember because I've taught it to so many people he said Brian doesn't work I said it doesn't work he said it doesn't work I said I've used it every single day ever since you I learned it all those years ago it doesn't work I said how do you mean he smiled and he said doesn't take 10 years said only took me seven he said today he said I am
earning 10 times what I was earning 7 years ago he said I used it every day absolutely amazing he said I'm making more money today in a in a week or a month than I was often making a month or a year he said by using that formula and what I did personally is I used it once increased increased my income 10 times and then I used it again and increased my income 10 times more a hundred times in 12 years and so can you so here's what here's what it consists of it's very simply
this um each morning get up uh first thing at least two hours before you have to be somewhere so you can invest the first hour what we call the golden hour into yourself and you invest the golden hour by reading something that is uplifting educational motivational spiritual it doesn't matter but they say reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body instead of reading newspapers or magazines or watching television what you do is you just read something that uplifting if you're in sales read something in selling if you're in U spiritually oriented read
something spiritual if you want motivation read something motivational but read one hour every morning that will thoroughly prepare your mind for the rest of the day uh one of the great uh speaker said that the first hour is the rudder of the day it's called the Golden hour so you invest the golden hour in yourself and just like if you got up in the morning worked out for an hour you'd be feeling great all day long if you get up in the morning and read for an hour you'll be feeling mentally great all day long
step number two in the formula is make a list of everything you have to do that day sit down make a list B everything that you have to do plan your day in advance step number three is organize your list by priorities determine what's most important what's second most important what's third most important put a number next to each one number one number two number three number four number five fourth step is to start on your most important task as we mentioned before and work on it single-mindedly with concentration focus and discipline until your most
important task is done and then go to task number two and do the same thing number five is listen to uh audio programs in your car turn your car into a mobile classroom turn your car into a university on Wheels now a study at the University of uh California USC concluded that if you listen to educational audio programs in your car as you drive around instead of listening to to music which we call chewing gum for the ears if you listen to audio programs you'll get the equivalent of almost full-time University attendance except for one
small point is when you go to the university people who've graduated from universities that as I eventually dead find that about 90 or 95% of what they teach you is not practical it's theoretical it's true it's enjoyable but it's useless in the real world however when you select educational audio program s on sales communication time management goal setting for yourself which you can stop and start if you like you only select things that are valuable to you in the moment so you get even more than a university education by turning your car into a classroom
on Wheels you turn your car into a mobile learning machine here's an interesting point going right back to the beginning if you were to get up and read for 60 minutes each day you would read an average of one book per week one book per week would be an average of 50 books a year now to get a PhD at a leading University in any subject including astrophysics you have to read about 30 to 50 books and combine them into a dissertation if you read 30 to 50 books in your field in the course of
a year you get the equivalent of a doctoral degree whether it's in selling business entrepreneurship or any other field you will because you're reading material that's practical have the equivalent of a dissertation in that you will have blended it into your life you can double and triple your income simply by reading one hour every day and I've taught this to thousands of people have come back to me and said it's absolutely incredible the difference it makes in your life to begin the day by reading in your field the second thing is if you plan every
single day in advance I can promise you this the very Act of planning and setting priorities will increase your productivity by 25% the first day if you were to set and and concentrate on your most important task you'd increase your productivity by another 50% by simply reading setting priorities focusing on your most important task your productivity performance and output will go up 100% in one year if you then listen to audio programs in your car many people have told me that that alone has increased their income 1,000% in 10 years now what is the next
step number six number six is to ask yourself two questions after every call or every event these two are what I call the magic questions and they will change your life question number one is right afterwards say what did I do right in that situation if it's a sales call if it's a business meeting if it's a job application or interview if it's a negotiation if it's a meeting with your bank afterwards ask yourself what did I do right and immediately think and even better write down everything that you did correctly in that meeting because
you did a lot of good things even if it wasn't successful you did a lot of things that were right second though they're about to buy a million dollars worth of your product if they like you and if you treat them nicely and especially treat the members of your family treat your children treat your spouse treat your friends like they're really important people and the wonderful thing is that the more you treat other people as if they're important the better you feel about yourself the more positive you feel and of course the more positive they
feel and the more they want to work with you and be around you this th% formula has been the key to success throughout history is you don't make Quantum leaps you don't go from zero to being rich you don't make easy money or quick money what you do is you go to work on yourself bit by bit day by day week by week month by month and your results are virtually guaranteed
