Weekly Success Tip

One of Napoleon Hill’s key principles that strangely did not make it’s own chapter in the book Think and Grow Rich was that of ‘Going the extra mile’. That means doing more than that which you are paid for or obliged to do.

Now since we’re in the grip of Olympic fever, I thought I’d share with you two incredible stories about going the extra mile I read this week.

The first story come from the August edition of ‘My Business’ magazine and is about an Australian business named Croker Oars. This family-owned business supplies rowing oars to more than half of the Olympic rowing teams as well as sculling, surf and ocean rowing oars. If you’ve been watching the Olympics their oars are easily recognisable by their hot pink coloured sleeves. The founder Howard Croker, tells how the company struggled in the 80’s, and how going the extra mile helped establish his company significantly in two overseas markets.

Croker states ”During the mid ‘90’s, our daughter Joanne relocated temporarily to Europe where she successfully introduced Croker oars to more customers. When she was in Zurich she helped a Canadian rower by spending the entire night custom-preparing a set of oars which changed the rower’s fortunes, she went on to win a silver medal and international fame. By doing this, Joanne managed to turn many Canadian teams around to using Croker Oars”.   

It goes on to say, “The mercy mission was duplicated by Howard Croker’s wife who assisted a female Chinese Rower in Spain by supplying reliable oars. The young girl later married the newly appointed head of Chinese water sports and from a position of knowledge talked up Croker Oars. Now China’s Olympic rowing teams will be powering their boats with Croker Oars”.

Not a bad connection to make if I do say so myself! One thing you’ll notice about this success story is that it had nothing to do with sales, advertising or marketing, it had to do with going above and beyond the call for your customer! Going the extra mile.

My final story comes from an article in the August ‘08 edition of the Qantas In-flight Magazine p43, which inspires me because when I drive from Bathurst to Sydney, the only sizeable town is a coal mining town called Lithgow. On the sign into town it says, ‘Home of the Lithgow flash’, which was the nickname given to one of Australia’s greatest ever athletes, Marjorie Jackson.

In an interview prior to the Sydney Olympics the article quotes Jackson saying, ‘The people of Lithgow put in and built this track. They didn’t have any money left over to put lights up, so I trained in fog, sleet and snow by the lights of one motorcar. I’d feel with my feet, hope I was in the middle of the track and just keep running till I banged into the car”.

I’m not sure about this training method today, but living in Bathurst I can vouch that the sleet and snow are still there, and history shows it worked for Jackson. She was the first Australian woman ever to win a track gold medal at an Olympic games when she broke 10 sprint records winning gold in both the 100m and 200m at Helsinki in 1952.

At the end of the day, whether you’re an Olympic athlete, business owner or individual, life rewards those who go the extra mile.

Action Step: For the next 30 days, pick one area of your life and really concentrate each day on how you
can be more effective, efficient and valuable and go the extra mile without expectation of reward.