Why 25 minutes of advice was worth $1,000 a minute...

Over the weekend I was doing some office clear out work. In a folder I came across a story which I had picked up somewhere in times past. (I've shared the story below) I'll summarise it by saying it's a simple story and a simple strategy - but it's brilliant as well. I've tried it myself since and it really works. If you like it, try it out for yourself. GERRY DUFFY

One day a management consultant, Ivy Lee, called on Charles Schwab of the Bethlehem Steel Company. Lee outlined briefly his firm’s services, ending with the statement: “With our service, you’ll know how to manage better.”

The indignant Schwab said, “I’m not managing as well as I know how. “What we need around here is not more knowing but more doing, not knowledge but action; If you can give us something to pep us up to do the things we already know we ought to do, I’ll gladly listen to you and pay you anything you ask.”

“Fine, ”said Lee. “I can give you something in 20 minutes that will step up your action and doing by at least 50%.”

“OK,” said Schwab. “I have just about that much time before I must leave to catch a train. What’s your idea?”

Lee pulled a blank 3 x 5 note sheet out of his pocket, handed it to Schwab and said: “Write on that sheet the five most important tasks you have to do tomorrow”. That took about three minutes. “Now,” said Lee, “Number them in order of their importance.” Five more minutes passed. “Now,” said Lee, “Put this sheet in your pocket and first thing tomorrow morning look at item one and start working at it. Pull the sheet out of your pocket every 15 minutes or so and look at item one until it is finished. Then tackle item number two in the same way, then item three. Do this until quitting time. Don’t be concerned if you only finished two or three, or even if you only finish one item. You’ll be working on the important ones. The others can wait. If you can’t finish them all by this method, you couldn’t with another method either and without some system you’d probably not even decide which are the most important.”

“Spend the last five minutes of every working day making a “must do” list for the next day’s tasks. After you’ve convinced yourself of the worth of this system, have your men try it. Try it for as long as you wish and then send me a cheque for what YOU think it’s worth.

The whole interview lasted about 25 minutes. In two weeks Schwab sent Lee a cheque for $25,000- a thousand dollars a minute. He added a note saying the lesson was the most profitable from a money standpoint that he had ever learned. Did it work? In five years, it turned the unknown Bethlehem Steel Company into the biggest Independent steel producer in the world and made Schwab a hundred million dollar fortune.