The theme of this post is referencing the role of numbers in our lives, business, leadership, and many other facets of life. You find numbers attached to both rules and laws. It is important here to distinguish between the two. Laws are a system of rules and guidelines that dictate social behavior and provide for acceptable conduct within a community. Rules, on the other hand, are concrete directions for behavior that must be followed to avoid punishment or censure.
We find a widespread use of numbers with both laws and rules. We may classify these numbers in several ways such as numbers attached to rules of leadership. We may also classify them whether those numbers follow Fibonacci numbers or not.
Fibonacci numbers follow the sequence 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 134…
You may notice that we add two adjacent numbers the result is the next Fibonacci number.
Many rules follow a certain Fibonacci number such as 21. Examples include, but are not limited to, 21 Rules of Life, 21 Rules of Leadership, 21 Rules of Power, and many more.
The Seed Idea for the Post
The idea seed resulted from a comment by Indrani Guhathakurata in which she wrote, “But what if I told you that being underestimated can be your Primary Motivating Factor (PMF)”?
This reminded me of the 21 law power of the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. This law states that Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker– Seem Dumber than Your Mark. It can lead others to underestimate you, giving you the element of surprise”.
This is what Indrani referred to in her comment by making the opinion of others a source of strength for you.
One idea gives birth to another idea and one memory opens the door for the entrance of another memory. The previous discussions reminded me of the post of Dennis Pitocco titled, “Are You Ready to Make Four Simple Promises?” In this post, Dennis discussed 4 principles for leading a good life. This reminded me of Rule 7 of life, which states, “Rule 7, “Pursue what is meaningful and not what is convenient”.
Rules cover many areas including finance. One example is Rules 72, which states that in order to double your money you divide 72 by the annual return or interest rate on your money. For example, if you have USD100 this amount doubles to USD200 at an interest rate of 10% in 73/10= 7.2 years. Likewise, if you wish to triple your money do the same but replace 114. That is 114/10 = 11.4 years to make the initial investment of USD100 increase to USD300.
The tendency to attach numbers to rules and laws extends to living a good life. The 8 8 8 Rule states that allow 8 hours of hard work, 8 hours of good sleep, and 8 hours of recreational activities.
The examples cover only a glimpse of the human tendency to attach numbers to rules and laws. Feel free to share your examples.