I.
Nearing the end of the regular season in
baseball, and in preparation for the World Series for 2013, it all comes down
to one or two games to be won or lost by a very few teams left in the
running. One or two games …
II.
A promotional piece for a popular motivational
book “212 Degrees: The Extra Degree” by Sam Parker and Mac Anderson states the following:
At
211° water is hot. At 212°, it boils. And with boiling water, comes steam. And
with steam, you can power a train. The one extra degree makes the difference. The
212° mindset inspires the extra level of effort that produces exponential
results.
Only 1 (ONE) degree …
III.
The Ed Sullivan show was credited with launching
a significant number of “Overnight Successes”, including the Beatles, in the
mid-20th century. A single
appearance …
I.
To get to that single “defining” game in the
season, a baseball team must already
have won more than 80 out of 150+ games during the preceding 6 month span of
the regular season. And they must have gotten
progressively better during the season; during the final stretch, they will
very likely face teams that have already
beaten them during the regular season and have gotten better, and they will
have to outplay the very best teams in both
leagues to win the final World Series pennant.
II.
To get to 211 degrees Fahrenheit (99.4 degrees
Celsius), a pot of water must already
have consumed 1 calorie per gram per degree Celsius. But that final ONE DEGREE (or 0.6!) rise in
temperature to boil water and create steam comes at an extraordinarily high
cost: The heat required to raise the temperature of water a SINGLE degree
between the temperatures of 0 and 99 degrees Celsius (210.2 degrees Fahrenheit)
is 1 calorie per gram of water, whereas the heat required to raise the
temperature of water from 99 to 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit) –
and, thus, create steam – is 539 calories per gram = 539 times the amount of
energy per gram per degree it cost just to get to that point! This incredible blast is called the “heat of
vaporization” – roughly equivalent to sending molecular rockets into
space.
III.
Malcolm Gladwell underscores the reality behind
“Overnight Successes” in his book “Outliers”,
pointing out that breaking into the mainstream as a top level performer
requires no less than 10,000 hours of time investment in progressive
development.
One can add to these examples the fabrication and filling of
a dam for production of hydroelectric power.
No power gets generated until the dam is high enough for gravity-fed
water to run the generators and until
the water fills the reservoir behind the dam.
Hoover Dam, located on the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona,
took 5 years to build. Then it took an
additional 20 months to fill Lake Mead behind the dam to a level capable of
producing power. Of no small
consequence, a total of 112 men died during construction of the dam.
So we need to understand that much of life is a stretch
beyond mere stepping stones on level ground.
And, generally, the higher you go, the tougher it gets. Exponential results require exponential
energy and are not won by simple degrees.
This is represented graphically by the asymptotic curve below, which
shows that the closer one gets to a Goal, the more energy one must expend to
make tangible progress.
The good news is that if we keep piling up capacities and
consistently overcoming the associated challenges, we can eventually start
generating the power required to move us ahead.
Anyone who ever thought or said it would be easy or that significant
sacrifices would not be required is either living under a rock or selling snake
oil. Quartermaster
“The heights which great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept*,
Were toiling upward in the night.”
Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
“The Ladder of St. Augustine”
*… alternatively, were watching television, Tweeting, Twittering,
Texting, playing video games …
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