The animated ‘Bee Movie’, starring Jerry Seinfeld and Renée Zellweger, illustrates the consequences of bees not pollinating flowers and trees. Eventually, trees begin to die off, new trees do not grow, and the ultimate consequence is a lack of food and oxygen on earth. The consequence of a little creature, that is hardly ever seen, not flying around from one flower to the next, could lead to the total destruction of life on earth. The more skeptical say that bees contribute to only 30% of our food chain. But think about it – if the earth lost 30% of its food and oxygen production, what would happen? Either way, it would be bad news for life on earth!

In our businesses, the Bees are the Bits of Extra Effort that we put into all the different things we do: correcting an email before it goes out; sending a quote on the same day as opposed to the next day; sending a thank-you note to someone; phoning a client to wish them happy birthday. There are a myriad of examples.

Individually, one would never say that these bits of extra effort could be the reason for the success of your business. But, put them all together and you see how they harmoniously work together to increase the ‘oxygen’ and ‘food supply’ in your business. These miniature acts of increased effort create an increase in the tempo of your business; an increase in the satisfaction of your clients, and an increase in the sales of your goods or services. Those of you who have experienced missing the cut-off for the next payment date – even by only one day – will understand the cashflow implications of not pushing your supplier a little more, waiting for the next day before you received the raw material, not pushing to reduce the production time by one day, missing the delivery time by one hour – all resulting in missing the next day’s delivery time. All of these add up to your receiving your cash thirty days later. Tiny efforts; massive consequences.

In the movie Any Given Sunday, Al Pacino plays the coach of a football team. His motivating speech talks about fighting for the inches on the football field. He explains that the difference between winning and losing is not about anything more than gaining those single inches all the time.

Research has shown that successful people have higher levels of energy and activity than less successful people. I’m sure that the level of activity you choose for yourself is your own personal decision. So what’s it going to be?