Volume 3 · The Corner Cabin · Essay 13

5x Rule

Numbers are impatient teachers. 5x Rule gives you the figure first and the explanation later. That is usually the right order.

The number is a fence. On one side lies intention, on the other side lies habit. Most of us live on the wrong side and write poetry about it. This rule simply asks you to climb the fence.

The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.

Watch a good tailor in a busy lane. He does not measure twice out of fear; he measures twice out of respect for the cloth. Teams led with that spirit rarely need scolding.

An organisation is only a group of people who have agreed, for now, to pull in roughly the same direction. A word is a lamp. This one is now yours to carry.