The Danger That Is The Numbers Game
Just keep banging your head against the wall. Something will break!
When I first started in sales, I took the sales is a numbers game advice to the extreme. I was cold-calling 100 to 300 houses a day when I was wholesaling houses. I felt miserable, and I was taking it out on the people around me.
I’d pop on a podcast while I was dialing, and I would pause whenever I got an answer. I’d say the script with a full expectancy that I would get hung up on. Guess I spoke that into existence.
Oops
I subscribed to the idea that sales was a numbers game because that would best fit my narrative.
I can outwork anyone
I made no sales, yet I was putting more effort than the actual people making sales.
What believing in the numbers game does
It causes you to burn out
This idea of a numbers game goes beyond sales. This applies to everything in life such as workplaces, making friends, and improving your mental health. When crossed with failure, this advice is always handed out.
Subject X is a numbers game, just keep trying!
If a sales trainer tells you sales is a numbers game, that’s them saying to you, “the training doesn’t work that well, so unfortunately, you’re just going to have to work harder.”
The 4-hour rule
In an article Stephan Joppich wrote, the 4-Hour Rule of Long-Term Productivity, he talks about how humans do their best work within the first 4 hours of working. He shows studies on how violinists, scientists, and hunter-gatherer societies all implement this.
This also applies if you’re working a job that requires you to work more than 4 hours. Organize your workload so you’re doing the most important tasks first. This way, even if you can’t finish everything, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that the crucial tasks are complete.
Why do we keep falling for this trap?
The numbers game is addictive. The idea that all you have to do is work hard is actually a pretty easy idea to subscribe to.
If you had to clean your room, would you rather physically clean it, or press a red button 150 times and have it automatically cleaned?
The red button is probably more “work” but people would most likely pick that option just because it’s very simple, as opposed to easy. No thinking is required.
Silly hypotheticals aside, everybody wants to believe there is some secret cheat code to life, a win button. A task where minimal effort can be exported while everything we’d ever want would be imported. This type of life does exist, but it always comes with a cost.
The fantasy of an easy job
When I was in college, I was working part-time at the college gym. I would clock in 20–30 hours a week, and the job was very easy. I’d sit at the front desk, greet people who walk by, do my homework and play games. Sounds like the dream, doesn’t it?
I’d feel drained and dead inside when I got home. When you think about nothing exciting after a 5-hour shift of nothing, it tends to kill your personality. At least it did for me. Now, I never want to work an easy job again.
Conclusion
What do you value more? Working harder or getting more done? If the answer is getting more done, understand you work at your best in the first 4 hours and optimize for that. For the sake of your health, stop expecting yourself to work at your best for 8 hours.
