Leverage

The heavily tattooed and significantly pierced girl shook her head and a shot me a look of withering disdain. “You just cannot come in here. You are a business man with other business men. You are all wearing the wrong clothes and you won’t fit in.” My work colleagues and I, out for a night in Frankfurt, weren’t going to get into the techno club after all.

Charlie slumped against the pile of boxes he’d just helped me moved, and wiped his face with a filthy hand. “You know I’m only doing this because I like you. And because you helped me when I wasn’t working for a while.” One of my many flat moves in my twenties (probably precipitated by splitting up with another girlfriend) was made way easier with Charlie’s help. And his van.

Leverage. It’s what I had with Charlie but not with the German techno goth.

Leverage equals speed. Leverage is about maximising your results in a minimum amount of time.

There are three parts to leverage. 1) The fulcrum on which the lever pivots. That’s you. 2) What you want to create, such as getting into a techno club, or moving as cheaply as possible. 3) The lever itself. Assuming it’s strong, then the longer the lever the LESS force required. Leverage gives you the power to create a lot of impact, with very little effort.

“Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I will move the entire earth.” — Archimedes

Helga (she looked like a Helga) didn’t know me, didn’t think I’d fit in, and probably thought we’d drag down the atmosphere in the club. I had no leverage.

But in asking Charlie to help me move I was benefitting from his energy, time, van, and willingness to do it for free. What would have taken me a long time on my own, or cost me a lot of money, I did for free in an afternoon.

So, if you want to achieve anything as quickly as possible look for what you can leverage to get you there. It could be goodwill, resources, ideas, time, money, experience, or simple willingness to do a favour.

As Helga might have said, “Erst denizen, dann handle.” Or, “First think, then act.”

So today before rushing in to do anything I’ll be thinking about how I can apply leverage to get there faster, with less effort.

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