I’m going to tell you the greatest mistake you can make. Don’t make it today. This is your daily message from Chad number 582 and this message is dedicated to the ultimate compounding machine Dr. Rob Gilbert.

The biggest mistake you will make today is to do nothing because you can only do a little. Some is better than none. A little something is always better than nothing at all. In fact, doing a little everyday is better than doing a great deal every once in a while.

Dr. Gilbert’s line that was the impetus for me making these daily audio messages is it’s better to do a little a lot than a lot a little. So I started texting the kids a short voice memo every morning. Then a couple guys at work asked me if I’d send it to them. Then some other family asked if I’d include them. Other friends wanted it and here we are. 

Now I have hours and hours of messages—over 24 hours worth of content. If I would have tried to do this an hour at a time, I would never have done it. But two minutes at a time has been a breeze. I took the messages from last March and they were the basis for the 300 page book I finished last year. I did it minutes at a time.

Sydney Smith was the one who wrote, “It is the greatest of all mistakes, to do nothing because you can only do little: but there are men [and women] who are always clamouring for immediate and stupendous effects, and think that virtue and knowledge are to be increased as a tower or a temple are to be increased, where the growth of its magnitude can be measured from day to day.” Growth and change is often imperceptible. You want immediate results. Because you can’t get results in a stroke, you make your greatest mistake, to do nothing.

Remember Franklin’s maxim, “Yard by yard it may be hard, but inch by inch anything’s a cinch.:” Do what you can. Do it often. Be consistent. It’s better to do a little a lot than a lot a little.