The Domino Effect: One Thing at a Time

“Every great change starts like falling dominoes” (BJ Thornton)

In Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, on Domino Day, November 13, 2009, Weijers Domino Productions coordinated the world record domino fall by lining up more than 4,491,863 dominoes in a dazzling display. In this instance, a single domino fall that cumulatively unleased more than 94,000 joules of energy, which is as much energy as it takes for an average sized male to do 545 push ups.

Each standing domino represents a small amount of potential energy; the more you line up, the more potential energy you’ve accumulated. Line up enough and, with a simple flick, you can start a chain reaction of surprising power. And Weijers Domino Productions proved it. When one thing, the right thing, is set in motion, it can topple many things. And that’s not all.

In 1983, Lorne Whitehead wrote in the American Journal of Physics that he’d discovered that domino falls could not only topple many things, they could also topple bigger things. He described how a single domino is capable of bringing down another domino that is actually 50 percent larger.

Do you see the implication? Not only can one knock over others but also others that are successively large. In 2001 a physicist from San Francisco’s Exploratorium reproduced Whitehead’s experiment by creating eight dominos out of plywood, each of which was 50 percent larger than then one before. The first was a mere two inches, the last almost three feet tall. The resulting domino fall began with a gentle tick and quickly ended “with a loud SLAM.”

Imagine what would happen if this kept going. If a regular domino fall is a linear progression, Whitehead’s would be described as a geometric progression. The result could defy the imagination. The 10^th domino would be almost as tall as NFL quarterback Peyton Manning. By the 18^th, you’re looking at a domino that would rival the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The 23^rd domino would tower over the Eiffel Tower and the 31^st domino would loom over Mount Everest by almost 3,000 feet. Number 57 would practically bridge the distance between the earth and the moon! …so when you think about success, shoot for the moon.

[Like The Domino Effect] when you see someone who has a lot of knowledge, they learned it over time. When you see someone who has a lot of skills, they developed them over time. When you see someone who has done a lot, they accomplished it over time. When you see someone who has a lot of money, they earned it over time.

The key is over time. Success is built sequentially. Its one thing at a time.*

*Quote without permission from The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan (Bard Press, Austin, Texas, 2012). Page 12 to 16. Bracket mine. Buy this book!

The Domino Effect. In everything you do, the key is over time.

Success is built sequentially. Its one thing at a time.

As I always end my post – THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.