Is 1% a lot or a little?
Of course it is little. Practically nothing.
If you make $100k a year, it does not really matter whether it is $99k or $101k. It is basically the same.
If a coffee costs $5, it does not really matter whether it is $4.95 or $5.05.
If your car uses 1,000 liters of fuel per year, it does not really matter whether it is 1,010 or 990 liters.
So, if we look at the bigger picture, 1% is irrelevant, right?
WRONG!
…or better said, it depends on the angle.
Let’s get this out of the way immediately – this is not some guru crap where we try to sell you motivational bullshit.
This image is a mathematical illustration of something people constantly underestimate: a small advantage, a small mistake, a small leak, or a small edge that looks harmless… until time does its thing.
When it compounds over a year, the difference is… I do not even know how to describe it. Maybe TERRIFYING? Whatever word we use, it would be too weak. That is why this image does not need much explaining. It is enough to just look at it.
This text was supposed to be much longer, but now I am not even sure whether there is anything more to write, or whether we should simply let the image do its job.
Maybe print it out and stick it somewhere behind the monitor, so we see it every day when we sit down at the computer.
The problem with 1% is not that it looks big… The problem is that it looks ridiculously small! That is why people ignore it. And then, after enough time has passed, they realize that exactly that 1% either made them or wrecked them…