I came across a story from my friend Derek Sivers about a pottery teacher who did an experiment. The teacher divided the class in half. He told the first half they’d be making just one piece of pottery for the entire semester. They would be graded only on that single piece of pottery, so they would need to make it perfect.
The other half would be graded only on the quantity of pottery produced. More specifically, they would be graded on weight. 50 pounds for an A, 40 pounds for a B, 30 pounds for a C, and so on.
At the end of the semester, an outside judge came in to look at all of the pottery without knowing which half of the class had created it. Interestingly, all of the pottery rated the best by the judge came from the quantity group!
The quality group spent all their energy trying to make one amazing piece. They spent too much time theorizing and overthinking. Whereas, the quantity group just kept on experimenting through trial and error. They made lots of mistakes, but they got better faster than the ‘perfectionists’ in the first group.
This got Derek thinking about a theory where quantity can lead to quality, whatever your field. If you’re an entrepreneur, this could mean instead of focusing all of your energy on one company for ten years, maybe you become a better entrepreneur by doing one company every year for ten years instead?