IF PAYPAL CO-FOUNDER PETER THIEL could do it all over again, he said that he would have started thinking bigger sooner.

“If you go back 20 or 25 years, I wish I would have known that there was no need to wait, I went to college. I went to law school. I worked in law and banking, though not for terribly long. But not until I started PayPal did I fully realize that you don’t have to wait to start something big.”

The self-made billionaire says you should take your 10-year plan and ask…

Why can’t I do this in six months?

I love these type of questions as you never know what you’re truly capable of until you’re challenged to think bigger and deliver faster.Thinking bigger… asking penetrating questions… and dramatically compressing time frames is a unique quality, as well as force multiplier strategy that sets the ultra-successful apart from the rest.

ODD COUPLES

Most of us are local and linear thinkers living in a global and exponential world. Our biggest individual challenge is to retrain our linear (one step at a time) brains and start projecting exponentially.

This isn’t easy… but it directly affects your ability to do big, bold and beautiful things with this ONE LIFE you’ve been given.

And that’s what you really want isn’t it?

UNDERSTANDING EXPONENTIAL GROWTH

I hope you’re game for a crash course in what exponential growth actually looks like, and the radical power it can have.

Let’s begin with a fun experiment…

If you have a child or younger brother or sister, consider giving them the following choice:

Option #1: Offer them $1 a day for the next 30 days.

Option #2: Offer them a penny on the first day, two cents on the second day…and tell them you’ll continue to double it each day for 30 days.

Chances are, they take the first option.

$30 isn’t bad for zero work.

But if they took the second offer…what started out with a penny would result in $10 million on day 30.

Now we’re talking!

Remember these numbers and how vital it is to recognize the astonishing power of exponential growth.

THE LAW OF ACCELERATED RETURNS

We’re all familiar with the law of diminishing returns where at some point, no matter how hard you are working that your results will be less and less and you wind up playing a game of subtraction or even worse…division.

But what about just the opposite…what about playing multiplication as in leaping your way to 10X, 100X, 1000X or even 10000X.

Google’s genius Futurist Ray Kurzweil has made headlines with his provocative yet often accurate predictions, like that a computer would beat a human in chess (already happened) or that self-driving cars would take us everywhere (starting to happen).

But, Kurzweil’s brilliance isn’t in the predictions themselves. It’s in what the predictions represent — Kurzweil’s core thesis, a little thing called “The Law of Accelerating Returns”.

It states that “fundamental measures of information technology follow predictable and exponential trajectories”.

“The reality of information technology is it progresses exponentially, 30 steps linearly gets you to 30. One, two, three, four, step 30 you’re at 30.

With exponential growth, it’s one, two, four, eight. Step 30, you’re at a billion”.

To put 30 exponential steps into perspective – you’ll circumnavigate the Earth 26 times!

A simple assessment of the history of technology and its impact on growth shows that change is exponential.

What this means is that we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress.

I’d suggest you grab your helmet and buckle up…as we’re all in for one heck of a ride.

THIS WILL LEAVE A MARK

The truth is…most people and organizations are preparing themselves for a future that does not exist.

While technology is on an unconventional rocket ride from one moonshot to the next…far too many of us remain stuck in the past.

Most people operate with slow, flawed and outdated thinking and execution strategies which are only successful in creating small…and for some, even diminished returns.

A moments reflection will point out that we’re multiplying our capabilities as a civilization, and yet we still accept the highly-limiting beliefs that important societal change and progress, like re-engineering education, combating crime, innovating in government, medicine, law and even politics — must take generations.

Despite irrefutable proof of what we can accomplish in a short amount of time, most of us remain firmly fixed in the comfort zone and follow prescribed paths.

In its simplest terms…the Law of Accelerating Returns states that technological change is exponential and that the rate of change acts much like compound interest.

It increases against the starting point at ever increasing rates…and it’s the reason why we are seeing such exponential, non-linear growth and rapid changes in technology.

To add further proof as to why you need to “GET THIS MESSAGE”…here’s a few other accelerating technology laws which validate my points.

Koomey’s Law states that the energy required for computation halves every 18 months.

Kryder’s Law states the amount of information we can store doubles for the same amount of space every 18 months.

Butter’s Law states the amount of data we can put through optic fibers doubles every nine months.

Nielsen’s Law states that bandwidth to the average home doubles every 21 months.

Sawnson’s Law states that the cost of solar panels drops 25% every doubling of manufacturing capacity.

Haitz’s Law states that the amount of light generated by an LED advances 20 times each decade and the price falls 90%.

LOOK CLOSELY…and you’ll see that they all share the same clear pattern of rapid growth.

It’s worth bringing to your attention that almost all of the consumer products you use LEVERAGE a number of these technologies simultaneously.

For you and I to remain competitive and relevant in the future… we must understand that technological change is accelerating so quickly that the only viable strategy is to change our way of thinking about achieving rapid success…and start upgrading our execution strategies.

Life’s too short to operate with self-limiting beliefs and faulty execution strategies. That’s why you’ll want to keep an eye out for the 4th installment as what you’ll learn will set you up for a lifetime of massive success.

Everything Counts!