In "The Slight Edge," Jeff Olson talks about the power of doing "the little things" over and over again, consistently, over time, until the compounded effect of those small efforts produces dramatic change. Brian Tracy, in "Create Your Own Future: How to Master the 12 Critical Factors of Unlimited Success," calls this same phenomenon, "the principle of accelerating acceleration."

Tracy, who sees the principle as a corollary of "law of attraction, says, [page 48], "Whatever you are moving toward [i.e., a goal] begins moving toward you as well." His characterization of how the principle operates should be in every network marketer's start-up kit:

"When you first set a new, big goal and begin moving toward it, your progress will often be quite slow. You may be frustrated and think of giving up. The bigger your goal, the further away it will seem. You may have to work on it for a long time before you see any progress at all. But this is all part of the process of goal attainment."

"The 20/80 rule helps to explain the principle. . . . For the first 80 percent of the time that you are working toward your goal, you will only cover about 20 percent of the distance. However, if you persist and refuse to give up, you will accomplish the final 80 percent of your goal in the last 20 percent of the time that you spend working on it."

Sounds like he's seen the "Time vs. Money" chart, doesn't it? In case you haven't, the chart is a graphical depiction of the growth of your business over a hypothetical five year period. In the early years, you put in a lot of time relative to the money you earn. At about the mid-way point, you are putting in the same amount of time but your earnings are commensurate with your efforts. In the later years, you earn a lot of money relative to the amount of time you work. Tracy continues,

"Many people work for weeks, months, and even years toward a big goal and see little progress. They often lose heart and give up. But what they didn't realize is that they had laid all of the groundwork necessary and were almost at the take-off point. They were just about to start accelerating toward their goal, and their goal was about to start moving at a great speed toward them.

"This principle of accelerating acceleration seems to apply to almost every big goal that you set for yourself. You must therefore decide in advance that you will never give up." [emphasis mine]

In a job, you work so many hours and you get paid for that time. In most small businesses, there is a correlation between the amount of work and the amount of income. But network marketing is different. It's not a small business, it is a "big business," as Robert Kiyosaki tells us in his books, and there is no such correlation. In building your network marketing business, you are creating an asset that you could sell or leave to your children or that will provide you with a retirement income for the rest of your life. It may take you five years or two years or ten but when you know in advance what you are working for, it's not hard to decide that you will, indeed, never give up.