How to grow by killing negatives from Life?

Broadly, there are two ways to grow as an individual, one is to explore the new things and another is to improve the existing one by killing or eliminating all the negatives from it.

​The latter form of the improvement does not look attractive to the others, it is one of the effective ways to grow by improving your existing process.

Learning from my situation

In order to understand this let us look at the following situation:

The solar lantern is available in the market at the selling price of Rs. 800 per piece.

I also decided to design the same solar lantern to offer my clients.

I learned that in order to design it one has to undergo the following processes:

• Circuit designing
• Making of the PCB
• Assembling of the electronic components on the PCB
• Soldering them and  connecting with the wires
• Testing
• Packaging

I end up making the final product at the cost price of Rs. 780/-

I sold to my clients at the market rate of Rs. 800/-, making a small profit of 2.6%.

While others were making at least 15%  of the profit margin by selling at the same rate of Rs.800 per piece.

I was not in the position to add any new technology or the machine to complete the whole process at the lower cost.

I decided to re-evaluate the steps involved in the making of the lantern and the results were as follows:

• I was taking 10% more time in designing the circuit.
• For every 100 PCB made, the 5 were of low quality and discarded.
• 7 to 9 electronic components get burned or wasted for every 50 PCB assembled due to improper soldering.
• The soldering iron is ON even after it is done.
• Due to improper soldering, the testing time is increased.
• The packaging wastage is almost 2% for every 100 lanterns assembled.

I found that above negatives were not only responsible for the increased cost price but also affecting the quality of my product.

I decided to eliminate all the found negatives from the making process, doing every step with more concentration and attention.

The results were praiseworthy:

• I was able to cut down the cost of making by 7%
• The final product was ready in Rs. 725/-, making a profit of Rs. 75/- per piece or 10% per piece
• The quality was improved, the lantern was providing the uniform light.
• The making time was reduced.

I neither acquired any knowledge from the books nor implemented new technology to expedite the process.

​I only tried eliminating the negatives from the process and I came out with the improved good quality product that too at the lower price. This was an achievement for me.

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Resolving Negatives is Easier

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The scientific explanation behind this is as follows:

The existing process comes under your comfort zone because you are doing it for so long though ineffectively.

You only need to make little efforts to identify the negatives in the process, resolve them and finally make the process more effective.

While, in the case of adding new positives, you need to get out of your comfort zone through the addition of the knowledge, investing extra time, or the implementation of the new technology.
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For example, it is a fact that acquiring new clients is almost 5 – 20 times costlier than retaining the existing one.

We all are so focused on adding positives that we forget that not eliminating the negatives could cause serious consequences.

​I am going to take a classic example of investing in the stock market but before going further let us understand the negatives and the positives of the investing process:

Eliminating Negatives:

• Avoid frequent trading
• Never invest with other’s money

Adding Positives:​

• Hiring a financial adviser
• Researching the good stock

Let us start with an example, Mr. X has Rs. 1,00,000 and wants to invest in the good stock. He researched a lot and found a growing stock with healthy financials.

He is expecting a 15% annual return out of this stock.

The next thought came into his mind that if he borrows Rs. 9,00,000  @ 10% per year

and

invest it along with his own money of Rs. 1,00,000,

a total of Rs. 10,00,000 (Ten Lakhs) in that stock

then he can earn Rs. 1,50,000 (15% of Rs. 10,00,000/-).

Finally, he went ahead with this thought and invested Rs. 10,00,000 in that stock.

Unfortunately, due to the change in the government in that period, the stock although very good, offered the negative return of 5%. 

The loss = 5% of Rs. 10,00,000
= Rs. 50,000

He lost 50% of his money.

You can see that how his investment turned into a nightmare when he made investment without eliminating the negatives of the investing.

"Never invest with other’s money"

Similarly, if you want to raise your income level then either of the following two  strategies will help you in this:

Eliminating Negatives:

• Paying utilities bills on time to avoid penalty
• Reduce expenses

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Adding Positives

• salary increment
• Adding new skill​

Conclusion

It is important to maintain the balance between the two growth strategies.

One can go first by eliminating the negatives from the existing task, maintaining it for a period of time and then gradually getting out of the comfort zone and take a new step of creating a new product or the next service.

It is same as keeping & maintaining balance client acquisition and client retention.

If you are not able to come up with the new idea, at least maintain your present situation by eliminating the negatives like if you are in office:

• Avoid coming late 
• Avoid unnecessary surfing of the internet
• Avoid irrelevant phone calls

We only see that generating new idea, creating new product or launching a new business is the only way to grow but we forget accelerating effect of the back end which one can experience by killing the negatives from the existing processes.