Here is a great discovery: All the answers have been found. All the routes to success have been
discovered. Everything that you need to learn to move to the top of your field has already been
learned by hundreds and even thousands of other people. And if you ask them for advice, they will
give it to you. Successful people will have their phone calls held, cancel other appointments, and put
their work aside to help other people be successful. But you must ask, and then you must follow
their advice once they give it to you.
If you can’t ask them directly, read their books and attend their talks and seminars. Listen to audio
programs created by successful people. Sometimes you can send them e-mails and ask for advice.
Learn from the best.

GOAL

If your goal is to be in the top 20 percent of money-makers in your field, the first thing you need to do
is find out what the people in the top 20 percent are earning today. This information is available. Just
ask around. Check industry statistics. Go onto Google. You can find this information if you look for it.
Once you know the income target at which you are aiming, write it down as your goal. Make a plan
to achieve this level of income, and work on it every day. Never stop until you reach it.
The secret to high income in business and sales is quite simple: learn and do. Like jacking up a
car, you improve one notch at a time. Each time you learn and practice a new skill, you ratchet up
your earning ability—and it locks in. As long as you keep increasing your earning ability, you keep
ratcheting up to a higher level, from which you seldom decline.

Use the 3 Percent Formula to Invest in Yourself

To guarantee your lifelong success, make a decision today to invest 3 percent of your income back
into yourself. This seems to be the magic number for lifelong learning. According to the American
Society for Training and Development, this is the percentage that the most profitable 20 percent of
companies in every industry invest in the training and development of their staff. Decide today to
invest 3 percent of your income into yourself in order to make yourself an appreciating asset, to
continually increase your earning ability.
If your annual income goal is $50,000, resolve to invest 3 percent of that amount, or $1,500, back
into yourself each year to maintain and upgrade your knowledge and skills. If your income goal is
$100,000, resolve to invest $3,000 per year back into yourself to ensure that you reach that level of
income

THE PAYOFF IS EXTRAORDINARY

I was giving a seminar in Detroit a couple of years ago when a young man, about thirty years old,
came up to me at the break. He told me that he had first come to my seminar and heard my “3
Percent Rule” about ten years ago. At that time, he had dropped out of college, was living at
home, driving an old car, and earning about $20,000 a year as an office-to-office salesman.
He decided after the seminar that he was going to apply the 3 Percent Rule to himself, and he
did so immediately.

He calculated 3 percent of his income of $20,000 would be $600. He began
to buy sales books and read them every day. He invested in two audio-learning programs on
sales and time management. He took one sales seminar. He invested the entire $600 in himself,
in learning to become better.
That year, his income went from $20,000 to $30,000, an increase of 50 percent. He said he
could trace the increase with great accuracy to the things he had learned and applied from the
books he had read and the audio programs he had listened to. So the following year, he invested
3 percent of $30,000, a total of $900, back into himself. That year, his income jumped from
$30,000 to $50,000. He began to think, “If my income goes up at 50 percent per year by
investing 3 percent back into myself, what would happen if I invested 5 percent?

Three Simple Steps to Become the Best

Becoming one of the top people in your field requires discipline and application more than anything
else. There are three simple steps that you can follow to become the very best in your field:
1• Read sixty minutes in your field each day. Turn off the television and the radio, put
aside the newspaper, and read material about your field for one hour each day before you start
working.
2•Listen to educational audio programs in your car. Start them and stop them as you
listen, so you can reflect on what you have just heard and think about how you can apply the
ideas to your work.
3• Attend courses and seminars in your field regularly. Seek them out. Take online
courses in the convenience of your own home, courses that enable you to upgrade your skills and
give you important ideas that you can use to be even more successful.
The power of compound learning, like compound interest, is quite amazing. The more you learn,
the more you can learn. The more you learn, the better your brain functions, and the smarter you get.
Your memory and retention rate improve. The more you learn, the more relationships you find
between something you learned at one time and something you learn at another time.

Never stop learning and growing

The Achievement of Mastery

How long does it take to achieve mastery in your field? According to the experts, the acquisition of
“mastery” requires about seven years, or 10,000 hours of hard work. It takes seven years to become a
master salesperson. It takes seven years to become a successful businessperson. It takes seven years
to become an excellent diesel mechanic. It takes seven years to become an excellent brain surgeon. It
seems to take seven years, or 10,000 hours of hard work, to get to the top of any field. So you might
as well get started. The time is going to pass anyway.
The starting point of your achieving mastery is for you to commit to excellence. I have never met a
person who made a decision to get into the top 20 percent in their field who did not eventually
achieve it. And I never met a person who got there having not made that decision. Making the
decision and then following it up with continuous, purposeful, disciplined action is essential.