Some days ago, I noticed that there was a lot of commotion on the Twitterverse. Apparently, a Nigerian-American novelist, Tomi Adeyemi had accused the prolific, serial best-selling author, Nora Roberts, of plagiarizing the title of her debut novel. They had both written a novel that had the words “Blood and Bones” in the title.

The social media storm on Twitter obviously increased the number of people interested in Tomi and her book. For instance, I know who Nora Roberts is, but I had no idea of who Tomi Adeyemi was before the controversy. As Robert Greene’s wrote in his book, The 48 Laws of Power, “Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious than the bland and timid masses”

However, the more I looked, the less likely it seemed that Tomi Adeyemi was merely trying to garner cheap attention. As fans of the two authors went back and forth on Twitter, I could not help but take a closer look at the 25-year-old Tomi Adeleye and her book.

I was mindblown by what I saw.

On Amazon, Tomi’s book had over 1500 mostly positive reviews, while on Goodreads, it had well over 10,000 mostly positive reviews. That’s absurd when you consider the fact that not everyone that buys a book leaves a review. It’s simply impossible to have so many positive reviews if the book itself is crappy.

Also, months before the controversy, a reputable company had paid Tomi Adeyemi seven figures to publish her novel, while another reputable company acquired the movie rights for the same book, reportedly paying her another seven figures!

She had also appeared many highly viewed shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Good Morning America, BBC What’s New, ABC 7 Chicago, amongst many others.

The more I researched her story, the more I realized that Tomi Adeyemi is a superstar in her niche and her remarkable journey to superstardom can be attributed to a principle called the Matthew Principle. In this post, I would be shedding more light on the Matthew Principle, as well as how you can make it work for you, rather than against you.

Understanding the Matthew Principle

After telling the story of how the servant with the least talent lost his single talent to the servant with ten talents, Jesus made a remarkable statement that is both scary and profound in equal proportions.

Matthew 25:29 says,

“For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.”

In other words, those who already have enough would be given even more, while those who do not have enough would end up losing the little that they have. This is the essence of the Matthew Principle!

Take a look at the way the world we live in works and you’d see the Matthew Principle all around you.

The richest 85 people in the world have as much money as the poorest three and a half billion people in the world! Yet even more and more money continues to pour into the coffers of these privileged few.

In the United States alone, nearly a million and a half books are sold. Only 500 of these books will sell more than a hundred thousand copies. Furthermore, a good number of these books are written by people who have other books under their belts.

Let’s take the Matthew Principle even further:

The well-to-do typically have preferential access to the best kinds of food. They live in the best kinds of houses located in the best parts of the city. They have more people at their beck and call, looking for ways to earn their favors. They are more likely to meet and network with other successful people who would increase their chances for more success. As a result, they are calm and are capable of delaying present gratification because they have a confident expectation of abundance in the future. The odds are in their favor, and it will continue to be in their favor until something really dramatic happens.

On the other hand, those with low statuses endure poor living conditions. They are often hungry, and in the few instances where they have access to food, the food is usually of poor quality. Due to the fact that they eat unhealthy foods, they are in dire physical and mental conditions which makes them liable to age quickly and die early. Even though they need as much help as they can get, they are not likely to meet successful people. In fact, they are more likely to meet and network with other people with similar experiences as them. As a result, they are impulsive and jump at any opportunity for pleasure without any consideration for how disgraceful, illegal, or sub-par it might be. Again, the odds are stacked against them, and it will continue to be against them unless something dramatic happens.

Apparently, over time, both success and failure compound upon themselves.

The more successful you are, the more likely you are going to embrace opportunities that would make you even more successful. Conversely too, the more unsuccessful you are, the more likely you are to find a way to jeopardize your chances for success.

Does this mean that the Matthew Principle has permanently condemned you to whatever rung in the social ladder that you find yourself? No, of course not. As it stands, from my research and observations, there are two ways you might be able to make the Matthew Principle work in your favor.

Reciprocal Determinism and the Matthew Principle

Some time ago, I was finding it incredibly difficult to make the time to go down to the gym and work out as frequently as I wanted to. So, I bought myself a treadmill, positioned it in my room in such a way that it was the first thing I saw when I woke up in the morning. As a result, it became much easier to simply get up from my bed, take a few steps to my treadmill and work out.

This is a classic case of reciprocal determinism where my immediate environment can influence my behavior, while I can also manipulate my immediate environment to help me change my behavior.

To take this concept closer to improving your life, the easiest way you can manipulate your immediate environment is by investing in more books. Someone once said that a mind that has been stretched can never return to its original dimensions. As exercise and food are to the physical body, so is continuous self-improvement to the mind. You need to broaden your outlook on life by exposing your mind to other perspectives other than yours. This is why it is expedient for you to invest in books. Read wide on a broad variety of topics. Read deep on the topics that intrigue you. Read biographies. Read classics. Read business books. Read. Read. Read.

With time, you would find yourself developing an ever-expanding knowledge base that would be crucial in helping you identify associations and patterns that are oblivious to the remaining 90% of the population that do not read. Eventually, the Matthew Principle starts working in your favor, and you will start seeing the effects of your compounding knowledge in the quality of your thoughts, choices, decisions, relationships, and life in general. Who knows, you might even be the catalyst for change in your immediate social networks and physical environment if you keep going along this path.

However, if you grab the bull by the horns, there’s a more powerful way to take advantage of the Matthew Principle.

Your Location, Your Allocation and the Matthew Principle

Going back to Tomi Adeyemi’s story, I discovered that there are times you need to do more than manipulate your immediate environment. Sometimes you need to physically change your environment by moving entirely different location.

And this is one thing that I noticed from Tomi Adeyemi’s story.

By making the decision to migrate from Nigeria to the US in the early 1990s, Tomi’s parents had dramatically improved the odds of Tomi becoming successful. In case you are unaware, the difference between living in a developed country and living in an underdeveloped country is like playing with two different slot machines. One of the slot machines is filled to the brim with $100 notes, while the other is filled with 25 cents. While it is possible to hit the jackpot and win all the coins in the 25 cents machine, the total winnings cannot be comparable to the winnings from a $100 machine. If you’re presented with the chance, it is a no-brainer to move from the 25 cents machine to the machine filled with $100 notes. And that’s exactly what happened with Tomi Adeyemi’s family.

Of course, the fact that Tomi Adeyemi was born in the United States does not mean that she just folded her arms and waited for the US system to bring all the good things to her. She had to develop herself and work hard. Eventually, the hard work paid off and she was admitted to Harvard University – one of the top five schools in the world. The last time I checked, the acceptance rate for Harvard was 6%. You can look at it this way: If 100 people applied for admission into Harvard, only 6 people would be accepted into the school! By implication, this means that only the best of the best can get into Harvard. So, when Tomi Adeyemi got into Harvard, her colleagues were the best students from high schools all over the US. In addition, because she was in Harvard, she got the best training from some of the best professors in the world. Imagine how Tomi Adeyemi’s physical and social environment influenced her thoughts and mentality for the 4 – 5 years she spent at Harvard. Imagine the opportunities she was exposed to, as well as the caliber of people she forged relationships with. It was only a matter of time before all the benefits of the Matthew Principle in her life led up to her writing a best-selling novel and getting a movie deal for the same book – all by the age of 25!

The truth is that your location will play a crucial role in determining your allocation from life. While you might not be able to migrate to a developed country like Tomi’s parents or get admitted into an Ivy League school like Tomi, you might be able to relocate to a bigger town or city. There are numerous benefits that living in a big city has over living in a smaller city. Seminars and other networking events are more likely to occur in a large city than in a remote village in the middle of nowhere. If you join the right groups and organizations, you are more likely to come in contact with life-changing information or industry secrets that would have never gotten to you if you embraced routine in your small town of 1000 people. Even if you are not able to change your physical environment, you can still change your social environment. In this day and age of social media, there are thousands and thousands of forums and groups on the internet that you can join to keep yourself in the loop where it counts.

Whichever method you decide to adopt, just ensure that you position yourself to get the best from the Matthew Principle.