Proof That The Numbers NEVER Lie (for people who want to write, but can't get started)

They say what you can’t measure you can’t manage, or that the numbers never lie and that the proof is in the pudding. 

This article marks my 100th long copy article written here on LinkedIn Publisher over the past 24 months. When I look back at my first article and follow my own journey, I see metrics, I see numbers, I see followers, I see massive learnings, vulnerability and good debate and I mostly I see real people.

100 articles, 1000’s of minutes, 100,000 words and one million people impacted. The numbers don’t lie.

There is power in numbers, there is power in words, there is power in ones and zeros and here’s how:

The Power of Zero

Multiple sources tell us that ‘It is commonly taught that any number to the zero power is 1, and zero to any power is 0. But if that is the case, what is zero to the zero power?’ And that is best left to the mathematicians reading this article because for me, it will do my head in.

In saying that, I was faced with a decision where I could do one thing or do nothing. The one thing was to honour an invitation to publish my work on Linked In. The second was to retreat to a place of safety where my words wouldn’t be ‘put out there’ for the world to critique.

I then thought about the numbers and the opportunity to scale and to play a bigger game to the power of n, starting with just one article to test the water.

The Power of One

A fantastic Australian book titled ‘The Power of One’ by Bryce Courtenay tells the story of a young boy coming of age and overcoming grief, bullying, racism, underdogs, revenge and triumph in his dream to become the welterweight boxing champion of the world. It’s about little does defeat big!

The ‘power of one’ is Peekays name for the force inside of everyone that lets them continue to fight. It’s the human spirit in each of us, that is capable of so much in overcoming any adversity and in trailblazing our own path of success. Writing has allowed me to share my thoughts around the role, direction and impact of modern day selling by bringing the human stories and insights into the world of sales leadership, in order to make my one difference in helping others do one extra thing they wouldn’t normally do to10x their business growth.

The Power of 10

Contrast the Power of One with the short documentary, The Power of Ten created by Charles and Ray Eames in 1968 and it puts the numbers into perspective again.

What began with a lakeside picnic in Chicago, this documentary takes us to the far reaching and outer edges of our universe. Cleverly, every ten seconds we see the picnic from ten times further out until our galaxy, and not just the lakeside, is just a speck. The rapid return to earth, and the picnickers, takes us in the opposite direction – inward, into the body of the picnicker magnifying things ten times every ten seconds whilst taking us inside an atom and inside a DNA molecule until we find ourselves inside a white blood cell.

When we consider the real insignificance of our existence from a greater perspective and marry in the fact that we worry so much about the little things, it’s really quite pathetic. I mean it took me ages to push ’Publish’ on my first article because I was so worried about what people would think, but really, when we zoom out and in the big scheme of things, who really cares? And when we zoom in, well there really is no ‘right or wrong’ so what does it really matter anyway?. If we want to 10X our business we need to put ourselves out there more and show up as someone willing to go the extra mile or write the extra word to help others.

The Power of 100

Outside of the fact that 10^100 (Ten to the power of one hundred; ten followed by hundred zeros) is called a googol, and is larger than the number of elementary particles in the universe, a googolplex is 10 to the power of googol - that is, 1 followed by 10 to the power of 100 zeros.

So what?

Well, after Page and Sergey Brin, founded and named Google back in 1977, they brainstormed domain names, got the spelling wrong with the letters ‘google’ keyed in instead, the domain was available and the rest is history. Add to that the fact that Google's corporate headquarters is called the GooglePlex, and you can see the power of an assumed vision and a literal and metaphorical opportunity to scale.

Thinking bigger while writing was, and still is key for me, pushing myself, researching, owning my own ideas, making mistakes, taking others wonderful words of wisdom and crafting my own unique ideas from them is what writing 100 articles has shown me that I love doing. We need to do things we love doing to create our own world changing version of a googolplex taking on board feedback and improving our odds. What do you love doing?

Chances are, like my first year at school report shows, what you love doing will have shown up when you were only a kid. The writing, pardon the pun, already on the wall, the proof already in the pudding, the numbers not (usually) lying.

The Rule of 150

Malcolm Gladwell, the journalist and author, took us on a journey of discovery through his Rule of 150. The power of 150 represents the most amount of people that any of us can maintain a meaningful relationship with at any one time. When a group reaches 150, then it is best for that group to begin to divide into smaller groups. There are a few examples quoted that back this up.

Tribes researched found that there were 148.8 people in an average village. When Defence Forces put units together, the unit is never larger 200 troops. Even in a company there is usually a tipping point of people who can function well together and that number is also 150. In science, when testing the neocortex ratios and function of the brain, estimates for the optimum size of a group for humans is 147.8 people. 

And I must admit, I can see the numbers too, as can all my readers, as to views, acknowledgements and comments on my writings. Add to that the social engagement I have experienced, the numbers would sit at around a core 150 people with whom I have now, and have had, meaningful connections, whether online or offline and as a direct result of deciding to write these past two years. For this I am super grateful as well as having the opportunity to perfect my craft.

The Power of 10,000

The respected author, Malcolm Gladwell once again, wrote in his 2008 book ‘Outliers’ how the magic number for becoming an expert at anything is to do the one thing 10,000 times, when so many of us do 10,000 things only once and wonder why we don’t stand for something.

Gladwell states, ‘you need to have practiced, to have apprenticed, for 10,000 hours before you get good.” And that ‘people aren’t born geniuses, they get there through effort’.

Even the rapper, Macklemore, shares those thoughts in the lyrics of his song ‘ten thousand hours’ ‘

Generation of kids choosing love over a desk Put those hours in and look at what you get, Nothing that you can hold, but everything that it is.. ten thousand

 I love writing, I put the hours in and I look at what I get, too. I can’t hold it for sure, but I know it when I see it. The power of scale. Knowing my numbers. The proof is in the pudding.

So, where do your numbers, calculations or results fit into any of the above categories?

What happens if you scale what you are doing? to the power of zero, one, ten, one hundred, one hundred and fifty or ten thousand.

Because this is all about scale.

• And scale in business terms can mean so many things, all leading us to growth.
• Are you allocating or utilizing resources well enough to drive results and do good work?
• Are you leveraging other departments, other people, other tools, your own skills enough?
• Are you optimizing what you already have or trying to reinvent the wheel through duplication and repetition?
• Can you renegotiate for more favourable terms or revisit partnership arrangements to create new opportunities to scale?
• Can you grow revenue without impacting operating costs or hours?

Clearly, the effect of adding another zero has the power to make us better business people, better students of the game, and for me, personally, after 100 articles on this platform, better writers.

The numbers never lie. Mark my words! Pick up your pen!

Be Bold and Brilliant

Bernadette McClelland

Bernadette McClelland is a Keynote and Sales Kick-Off Speaker, Executive Sales Leadership Coach, and published author. CEO of 3 Red Folders, she works with progressive CEOs who are keen to build the sales performance of their teams and differentiate themselves in the market place.

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Photography by Beth Jennings

Image courtesy of Tim Evans and my first school report.