A lot of people are very familiar with the story of how I used to work for ₦30,000 (less than $100) in a month.

However, not many people are familiar with the circumstances that led to me leaving the job.

The truth is that while I was overworked and underpaid at my job at the time, I was also possessed with a business idea that I thought would churn out millions for me within weeks.

I had thought about this idea and recycled it within my mind.

I examined it from every angle and I could not find a way it could go wrong.

The more I thought about it, the more I could not wait to start executing it.

With this confidence, I resigned my job and jumped headfirst into the business that I had in mind.

Needless to say, I went through untold hardships and unnecessary difficulties.

I had been complaining that I was earning ₦30,000 (less than $100) in a month. Well, that changed, as I had to find a way to survive on ₦500 (less than $2) in a week!

Looking back, I am grateful to God for the lessons that I was able to glean from the experience. However, if I could turn back the hands of time, there are so many things I would have done differently.

The Principle of the Aggregation of Marginal Gains

Many people think that success is a singular earth-shattering event that will become the talk of the town overnight. In my post 4 Powerful Ways To Create Your Own “Luck”, I talked about the Principle of Large Numbers. You might want to check out that post to see what that is about. In any case, the Principle of the Aggregation of Marginal Gains is very similar to the Law of Large Numbers.

You see, a secret of success is understanding that success is a process that is NOT going to happen overnight. Rather, success occurs as a result of showing up every day – regardless of whether you feel like it or not. Success occurs as a result of improving on a particular set of skills gradually and consistently. If you decide to improve on a particular skill by as little as 1% every single day, you would be better than at least 90% of other people who have that skill. Even mathematically, if you improve on a particular skill by 1% every single day of the year, you would be nearly 37 times better than your peers by the end of the year!

One of the reasons why I failed in my first business venture was that I violated the Principle of the Aggregation of Marginal Gains. There are so many skills that go into running a business successfully. You need to understand sales, marketing, product creation, branding, pitching, writing sales copies, among many other things. My failure to marginally improve on any of these segments of business meant that I was not ready to launch into business at the time when I did. And as a result, I got burnt!

The Mandela Effect and the Aggregation of Marginal Gains

This is a fun one because I got to know about the Mandela Effect at church.

So, it is common knowledge that the great Nelson Mandela died on the 5th day of December 2013 at the ripe old age of 95. However, a lot of people remember the events very differently.

For instance, numerous people (in their thousands) thought that Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980s. In fact, many people could actually clearly remember seeing the news clips of his funeral, the mourning in South Africa, some rioting in cities, as well as the heartfelt speech by his widow.

But it was not true.

Mandela did not die in the 1980s.

He did not die in prison, in fact, he was once the president of South Africa – a feat he could not have achieved from the walls of a prison cell.

Yet, so many people have a vivid false memory of a real-world event!

Similarly, when a lot of successful people are sharing their success stories, they are quick to explain how they wrote a single post on social media that suddenly went viral. What they would not tell you is the hundreds and hundreds of articles that they shared online but no one read or liked.

I remember an acquaintance who was in a tight place financially and was in a desperate need of a job. When he eventually got the job he desired and people asked him how he got it, he said God gave him the job. Yes, I give God all the glory for the great things He has done in this brother’s life. However, I am also aware of the fact that this brother visited a particular office countless time before he got this miraculous job in the same office. He believed in God’s ability to work miracles. However, this brother did not fold his arms and sit in his house, expecting a phone call for a miraculous job. He had a deep understanding of the principle of the aggregation of marginal gains. This brother consistently put himself in the position of having uncomfortable conversations concerning a job. Yet, when it was time to recount the success story, the Mandela Effect set in and a number of people would definitely have been misled by his success story.

This reminds me of 1 Corinthians 15:10,

“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

Paul recognizes the fact that God’s grace is superfluous and abundant in his life. However, he does not also trivialize the fact that he put in more work than the other apostles. He had an understanding of the principle of the aggregation of marginal gains. Grace is available to everybody, but since Paul put in more work, the grace manifested in his life was multiplied!

The next time you are seeing an advertisement on how you can quickly obtain a result without putting any effort in, look beyond the Mandela Effect and you would see the amount of effort you need to apply before you can get any result.

Looking back, I was probably shocked when I started facing difficulties in my business venture. All the self-help and entrepreneurship books had not explicitly stated that I would face difficulties. All they shared were the success stories of the bank accounts overflowing with dollar bills.

Just Keep Showing Up For Marginal Gains

Ecclesiastes 11:6  says, “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.“

In a previous post, The Commonly Overlooked Secret To Success That No One Is Talking About, I shared how the secret of success can be narrowed down to one thing: FOCUS. To expand on that concept, I would go on to say that success can be attained by focusing on improvement on one narrow field.

If I could turn back the hands of time, I would not have resigned from my ₦30,000 job. Since my business idea had not been validated at the time, it would have been unrealistic to expect my potential market to throw bucketloads of money at me. Rather, what I should have done was to focus on improving one aspect of the skills I needed to build a successful business. If I had kept on improving my copywriting or marketing skills, while also working at my job, I would have had both a steady source of predictable monthly income, while also becoming better at executing my business.

I know, on one hand, you can feel the calling of God burning a hole in your chest. You have that business idea that would not leave you alone. On the other hand, I know you are overworked and grossly underpaid at the place you are currently working. You cannot wait to quit your current job and unleash the potential you have within you.

Today, I offer you a third option: Keep working at your job AND keep improving on the skillsets you need to execute your God-given idea. Trust me, this option is not only the responsible thing to do as an adult, but it would also save you a lot of unnecessary heartaches. You will also have the Principle of the Aggregation of Marginal Gains working in your favor, instead of against you