The Butterfly Effect

By Brian Tracy
Published: January / February 2009

It has been said that, “A Butterfly flapping its wings in Peru can start a change in the weather that leads to a typhoon in China.”

At every turn in the road of your life, there will be a person standing there helping you or hurting you, guiding you or blocking you, giving you good or bad direction.

There seems to be a direct relationship between the number of people that you know, meet, bump into and interact with and the quality of your life. People who network on a regular basis with others, seem to be far more active and successful than people who go to work at the last minute, chat idly with coworkers, read the newspaper, make a couple sales calls and then go home and watch television.

Warren Buffett applied to Columbia University and was turned down. He turned to Princeton University and most of the courses that he wanted to take were already full. Finally, he settled on one course taught by a Professor Fisher on Value Investing.

Because he was young and impressionable, Warren Buffett absorbed Fisher’s ideas on how to choose stocks for the long term, went back to Omaha, and began investing for himself and others. The rest is history. Warren Buffett is now one of the richest men in the history of the world, still applying Fisher’s ideas to buying and holding good quality stocks.

How many times in your life has your direction changed because of your meeting and interacting with another person? Sometimes a single observation or bit of advice from someone with more experience in a particular area than you can change the course of your destiny.

When I was in my thirties, I was urged to run for political office. I put together a campaign committee of about twelve people, all of whom were enthusiastic supporters of my bid for office. I started to get carried away with the idea of being an elected politician and making a difference in the politics of my state.

Then I called an elected politician on whose campaign I had worked a couple of years before. I told him of my plans and asked him if he had any advice. I still remember his words: “Are you financially independent at this time?”

When I told him that I was a long way from financial independence, he told me that if I ran for office in my thirties, and was successful, I would never be financially independent. I would have a much lower income than I could earn in the private sector, and I would probably worry about money all my life.

That simple observation, “Are you already financially independent?” slammed the brakes on my political ambitions. I folded up my early campaign and went back to work as a business consultant, real estate developer and eventually, as a professional speaker.

The book, “The Secret” has been a best seller for the last couple of years. This book says that, “If you visualize and think positive thoughts, you will attract all good things into your life.”

Unfortunately, this idea is misleading. Of course, it is important that you think positive thoughts about yourself and your possibilities, but it is simply not enough. In addition, you must take continuous action in the direction of your goals, overcoming resistance, adversity, difficulties and temporary failures until you win through.

In reality, success is not based on the Law of Attraction, but rather the Law of Probabilities. This law says that there is a probability that everything can happen, and that you can influence these probabilities by doing more of the things that are more likely to lead to your success.

In sales, the sales person who makes more appointments and sees more prospects is going to make more sales than the sales person who stays in the office and shuffles their business cards. In life, the professional who networks regularly with other professionals, especially in sales, is going to dramatically increase the probability that he or she will meet with the right person, at the right time, with the right insight or guidance that will lead to a sale that might not have taken place.

The challenge is that you never know which person you meet is going to be the one that helps you the most. Therefore, by using the Law of Probabilities, you organize your life so that you network and meet with as many people as possible. This greatly increases the likelihood that you will meet the right person.

At every stage of your life, there will be someone standing there giving you insights and guidance that can set you off in a different direction. At the same time, you can be the person who gives the insights and guidance that helps others to do more of the right things that help them achieve their goals and improve their lives.

About the Author
Brian Tracy is legendary in the fields of management, leadership, and sales. He is the CEO of Brian Tracy International, and the President of Brian Tracy University of Sales and Entrepreneurship, a private on-line university. Brian can be reached at (858) 481-2977, 462 Stevens Avenue, Suite 202, Solana Beach, CA 92075.