1. Introduction
- Concept Definition: Narrow Path or Narrow Gate principle is life wisdom that recommends doing hard things first to get rewarded in the long run. The gate is an analogy for a difficult resistance, that only a few people can pass through.
- Concept Founder: The Narrow Gate idea was first mentioned in the bible Chapter Matthew 7:13-14 and Luke 13:23-24. Quote from the Bible: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
- Concept Benefit: Understand this principle to change your daily behavior. Consistently doing hard things will get you rewarded in anything you do.
2. How To Demonstrate It?
- “You are paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of the problems you solve“, a quote by Elon Musk demonstrating his interpretation of doing hard things.
- Choosing a hard problem to solve can bring enormous value to the company.
- Elon decided to go into the space travel industry as a private company. It was unthinkable at that time. No private company has ever achieved it without governmental support.
- In fact, the gate is so narrow for SpaceX, that even the most advanced thinkers in the aerospace industry were against his project because they think it was just impossible.
- After 19 years after its founding in 2002, SpaceX has finally achieved full recognition from NASA after they placed a bigger Order from SpaceX.
- At this stage, only a few organizations in the world are able to craft spaceships. This allows SpaceX to explore a huge potential future market with a long lead time and relatively small competition.
- The broad road is always crowded while the narrow road is always tempy.
3. Where Can It Be Applied?
- The Last Mile: The last mile is a narrow gate because most people treat their job as an 8-hour regular job and are not willing to go the extra mile. But in the long run, you create more value for the customers and will receive the deserved recognition. This will make you stand out from other colleagues.
- Stay Healthy: A lot of exercises, eating behavior corrections and mental willingness are required to stay healthy. Most people are allured by Junkfood or sugar that is not good for them in the long run. Eating and exercising habits represent narrow gates, that only a few can pass through. But once the habit is established, a longer and more healthy body will be rewarded.
- Long-Term Investing: The famous strategy of Warren Buffet is to earn “slow and boring” money instead of fast money such as Bitcoin. This is because slow money requires patience over multiple years and most people simply want to see quick returns. By choosing the quick money path, traders buy and sell quickly trying to achieve high returns in a small amount of time. This makes Bitcoin also very volatile and risky. Hence, a lot of people lose their entire capital to Bitcoin as a result of choosing the easy path in the short run.
4. Why Does It Exist?
- Evolutional Instinct Bias: Human brains are programmed to survive in the wild nature in the progress of evolution. This ancient instinct is still in us. Animals also tend to think in the short run than in the long run. Hence, this irrational, animal-like instinct in us will prefer to receive the benefit now, rather than in the long run, even if the long-term benefit is disproportionally bigger. For example, Most animals will always consume all available food the moment they receive it, instead of saving them for the future days.
- Lack of Execution: Water will flow to the path with a smaller resistance. The higher the resistance, the less water will pass through. Most humans also choose the easier path because choosing the hard path requires more energy, discipline, will, and other rare virtues. Only persons with determination and strong execution are able to consistently pursue difficult goals by nature. For example, most smokers are aware of their bad habits but lack the determination to really quit smoking.
- Long-Term Blindness: It is also possible that most people simply did not see so far ahead the road to recognize the benefit between the two paths. Their vision is limited to the short-term benefit only. Hence, these people have no intention at all to choose the difficult path. For example, children have no motivation to study because they are not yet aware of how it can be useful for them later.
5. How Do I Benefit From It?
- Do: Do hard things, be patient, and persist for a very long time to achieve something unique. Be bold to strive for things other people think are impossible. Be determined and consistent about your actions.
- Don‘t: Don‘t just focus on the short run, scout for long-term path and their benefits. Don‘t assume that the reward will come proportionally to the time. Often nothing happens until a tipping point is reached and you will be rewarded all at once. Don‘t quit half ways, keep the right path and pass through the narrow gate to distinguish yourself.