The story of a man who made $25,000 in 30mins with a single idea back in 1918

Back in 1918, Ivy Lee was a productivity consultant interviewing Charles Schwab, who at the time was the president of Bethlehem Steel Corporation.

During the interview, Lee highlighted his services to Schwab and told him that with his services Schwab would be able to manage his day better and be more productive.

Schwab replied, “I’m managing as well now as I know how to, what we need is not more knowledge but more doing. Not knowledge but action. If you can give us something to pep us up to do the things, we know we ought to do, I’ll gladly listen and pay you anything you ask within reason”.

Lee said fine and told Schwab in 20mins he could give him something which would increase his action and productivity by at least 50%.

Schwab said he was interested so Lee told Schwab to get a blank piece of paper and write down the most important tasks he needs to do tomorrow. Schwab took 3mins to write this down. Lee then asked Schwab to list them in order of importance, this took Schwab 5mins to do.

Lee then told Schwab to keep the note in his top pocket and in the morning look at the note and start working on the 1st Task. Lee told Schwab to work on it until it was finished before tackling the 2nd Task and do the same for Tasks 3, Task 4 and so on. Lee told Schwab not to be concerned about working on one or two tasks because he would be working on the most important tasks and the others could wait.

Lee told Schwab that if he were not able to complete the tasks using the method, he was given then he would not have been able to do so with any other method and without Lee’s system Schwab would not have decided which was the most important tasks.

Lee told Schwab to do this every day and once he is convinced of the value of the system give it to his staff for them to try to if they liked and then send Schwab a cheque based on what he thought Lee’s advice was worth.

The entire interview between Lee and Schwab last between 20mins – 30mins.

A few weeks letter Schwab sent Lee a cheque for $25,000 dollars (approximately worth $500,000 today) with a letter which read the lesson was the most valuable from a money standpoint, he had ever learned.

In the five years of using the system at Bethlehem Steel Corporation, which was unknown at the time, it was widely responsible for making the independent steel manufacturer the biggest in the world and it helps to make Charles Schwab a $1,000,000 and the best-known steel producer in the world.

So this is the story of a man who made $25,000 in 30mins with a single idea back in 1918.

But the story does not finish there….

IT Labs is a leading international technology company that is passionate about delivering ROI for organisations through improving software development.

Our unique approach to software development, and building high performing process-driven teams, enables us to guarantee to our clients that their projects are of the Highest Quality and delivered on Time plus on Budget.

Are responsible for outsourcing, nearshoring, offshoring or evaluating your options because IT Labs would like to show you How We Work?

I'd like to invite you to an ‘Ivy Lee’ and ‘Charles Schwab’ moment on a short 15mins – 20mins call.

Contact John Abadom at [email protected], to find out more and request IT Labs’ How We Work pdf document.

www.it-labs.com