Why quantity and quality matter more than you think

A question came in off social media: which of my businesses am I working on refining? Well, I am actively involved in nineteen businesses, and the answer is every single one of them.

Here is the point. You are either growing, expanding, or you are contracting, getting smaller. There is no parked. So in every company I am intimately involved with, I want the executive division doing better, being more effective, more competent. How do you get your personnel division going? How do you do quality control? How do you do customer service? How do you make sure the world knows about you? Those elements live in every business in the world.

And underneath all of them, there are only two things to work on.

The only two dials

Quantity and quality. That is it. You are always pushing to get more quantity, and when you do that, quality slips. So then you bring the quality of the organization up. Then you push the quantity up again. Then you bring the quality up again. That is the rhythm, and it never stops.

How do you know where you are on each dial? You measure it. If we measure it, we make sure we get the quantity. We measure it, we make sure we get the quality. Keep pushing and pushing. The number tells you the truth about both, and without the number you are just guessing.

The world will fight you

Now, understand what happens when you push. The world will fight you. It will argue with you. It will spit in your face. It is just amazing what this world will do to stop you from being successful, to stop you from reaching further. But if you simply know that is what is happening, you can handle it, because you are ten times more powerful than the element trying to stop you. Know it is there, and ignore it.

I will give you an example. Every morning around 5:45, my phone goes off. No matter what time I got to bed the night before, that alarm goes, get your fat ass out of bed, it is time to go downstairs to the gym. And oh, the things in my world that can prevent me from getting out of bed. I have a huge affinity for my pillow at that hour. My bed is nice and warm, I am nice and sleepy, and I could hit the snooze button. Nobody on the face of this earth is going to say, Tom, naughty, naughty. I am the boss. I am the guy in charge. Who is going to discipline me for not getting up? Only I know.

Then I get down there and I am the only one in the gym. I know the workout. Will I do it? Do you know how much gravity is sucking on this body at that hour, wanting me to lie back down? Here is the truth. Most of the stopping comes from within. That is why this is so powerful: you are fighting you. You have to break that inertia, get the thing moving, get you going.

Be the rose

It is not natural to want to be a steam locomotive all the time. We like to pull off on the side of the road. People will tell you, well, you have to stop and smell the roses. I am going to take it a step further. You could be the rose. Let life stop and smell you.

People say you have to take time to enjoy your family. Absolutely. But why not do it as a rocket ship instead of a turtle? When I take my family on vacation, the trips are epic. We spend real time together doing the most amazing, incredible things you could ever imagine, and we have so much fun. You can have it all. But you have to get the movement going. You have to break free and keep expanding.

Higher quantity, higher quality, everywhere

So what am I trying to do to bring about improvement in my companies? Everything. All of it, everywhere, always. How do I increase how much we do, and how do I increase the quality of what we do? We measure it and we push it, on both dials, over and over. Why would I ever want that to end? You are in charge. Keep correcting yourself, keep demanding more from you, and keep raising your quality.

And this is not just for companies. Run yourself the same way. Do you spend time on your education? On your physical condition, on making yourself healthier? Whatever it is you need to do to take care of you, are you doing it? What should you be doing that you are not? What should you not be doing that you are? Knock that off.

That is the game. That is life. Your companies, you personally, your relationships, your whole family unit, and all the people around you at work: higher quantity of everything, and higher quality of all of it. Keep pushing that for an extended period of time and you will find that everything just goes in a beautiful way. Life cannot resist that much push. Hope that helps.