1% Solution Book Summary (5 Things That I Learned)

Welcome to the 1% Solution book summary page! In this concise overview, I’ll give you the key takeaways from the book and explain how the 1% Solution can help you achieve your goals and improve your life.

Written by renowned author and speaker Jon Gordon, the 1% Solution offers practical advice on how to make minor, incremental improvements in your daily habits and routines that can lead to significant and lasting change.

Whether you’re looking to boost your productivity, improve your health, or achieve tremendous success in your career, the 1% Solution provides valuable insights and strategies for achieving your goals. Stay tuned for our summary of this must-read book!

How It Started

Do you know England’s professional cycling team (British Cycling) had won only one gold medal in the last 100 years before 2008? Their performance was so bad that no brand wanted to associate him with them. No brand wanted to give their cycles and sponsorships. Their performance was so bad that he was not even invited to a premium cycling event in France.

But then Dave Brailford was introduced, who, as a coach, started giving them training. Most cyclists thought, “what this new coach will do, our performance is already bad, and we will not be able to do anything special,” but things changed.

Team Sky used some strategies and principles, resulting in the lousy team winning the Tour of France within three years.

In the 2008 Olympic games, they won almost 60% of the gold medals. And at that time, they created 9 Olympic and seven world records. After which things improved more! They also won the world’s toughest race. And if we see, in total, they won 178 world championships and won 66 Olympics medals.

How did all this drastic change come?

A team which no one used to ask about, how did it do all these great things? How did they break such extensive records? Many might think that Dave Brailsford must have done great things.

Perhaps he must have made such significant changes within the team, due to which such big results came! But this is not true. When Dave was asked how you improved their performance so much, do you know?

Then finally, he shared his strategy, which he calls ‘Aggregation of Marginal Gains.

All the things needed to win a bicycle race, like different cycle parts. He divided everything into small parts, divided every single part. And in all those things, he just focused on 1% improvements.

For example, he started making them 1% lighter than the old suits of cyclists. He made the seat 1% more comfortable. He reduced the cycle weight by 1%. Installed bio-sensors in them and did so many things; doing 1% improved the cycle.

And it wasn’t about just cycles. He did many exciting things for cyclists. Like, he hired a doctor and taught his cyclist, through a doctor, how to wash his hands properly.

This is a small thing. But still, he taught it to every student so that they wash their hands properly, have fewer diseases, and they can practice more. To make their body more flexible, he got massage therapies done.

He took such small steps, which made their team members 1% better in every aspect. And this was the reason they did such great things.

1% Solution

Thomas, the author of ‘1% solution’, tells the story of Kane.

Kane was a very good person who lived on the best terms. His career was on top, and he had a wife and kids; everything was perfect. He was leading a perfect life, as one can imagine. But then, just six months later, something ruined everything in his life.

He started getting a lot of failures in his professional life. His relationship started to deteriorate, with his wife and kids also. His life flipped by 180 degrees. He was very upset. He didn’t know what to do. Then, one day, he goes to his son, Jack, to watch his football match.

Jack’s team badly defeats the opponent team! Kane finds it very surprising! Do you know why? His father already knew Jack’s team and how weak this team was. Last year, Jack’s team gave the worst performance. But still, this time, they badly defeated the best team. This thing seemed very shocking to Kane! That’s why what he did, he went to Jack’s coach, whose name was Jim.

And asked him, “What kind of training did you give them that they became so perfect? What’s the secret?” Then the coach said, The one who comes in 4th position, and the one who comes first, there is not much difference between them!!

For example, in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps won gold, and the one who came in the second position, Milorad Cavic, there was a difference of just 0.002 seconds between them.

Because of such a difference, one came first, and the other came second. Similarly, Jim taught Kane; Sometimes, when we want to do extensive in life, there is no need to be 100% better at many things! We can achieve many things if we focus on making ourselves 1% better. And I did the same. I focused on making my team 1% better.

Kane found it very interesting. After which Kane said, ‘Okay, I got it; by being 1% better, we can do many great things.

It seems okay in games, but how it be 1% better in life? How can I also change my life completely?

To this, the coach told him, “I learned the 1% rule from five people in my life. If you want to learn this, you’ll have to go to those five people and have to learn those five things.

Kane wanted to change his life, so he took him seriously and met those five people.

The Opposite Way To Increase Motivation

After listening to Jim, the author went to Carlos to learn his first lesson.

Carlos was a very great sales executive. Kane was so impressed after meeting him. He told Carlos about Jim. Carlos was very happy and happily agreed to tell him the mantra for his success. The first lesson he spoke about was, ‘The opposite way to increase motivation.

He explained to Kane that most people in the world feel that when they have motivation, they will work in their life.

This means motivation is more excellent than work. At the same time, the truth is the opposite! Work is more significant than motivation. What does it mean?

The opposite way is to increase motivation. Many people feel that if you want to do something big in life, then for this, first you need motivation, need energy, and then you will be able to work, but it is vice versa.

For example, if a person has to go to the gym. He will think that one day there will be motivation and energy in him, then he will leave all the unnecessary things and go to the gym, as it happens when the new year comes.

But in reality, if a person has to make a habit of going to the gym, the first thing to do is to go to the gym.

When you go to the gym and exercise, you will get the motivation that “I have done an excellent job.” if you keep taking action like this, you will slowly start feeling that you should go to the gym. It is good to go to the gym, and it will help you be motivated to go to the gym.

Don’t run behind motivation; run behind taking action. If you keep taking action, you’ll start getting motivation.

Kane found this very impressive. He refracted and thought that it had happened to him many times. He should have taken action when he was waiting for motivation and energy!

He liked the first lesson.

Physics of personal success

To learn the second lesson, the author reached out to Pat. Pat was a great teacher. He had won multiple awards also. She taught Kane a second lesson. That was the ‘Physics of personal success. And to explain this, she gave an example.

She said that, see 1986, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto noticed that just 20% of people owned 80% of property in Italy. And he found it very interesting. So, he started doing more research on it. And when he started researching it, he realized that this pattern isn’t just about real estate. Instead, it applies everywhere.

For example, 20% of plants produce 80% of fruits. We wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. If there is a rug, we walk 80% of the time on that 20% part of that rug. Similarly, he noticed this principle everywhere, which was quite interesting.

He named it ‘The Parito Principle’, which is quite famous today. So how this applies to you? If you are doing business, remember that 80% of revenue will come from a 20% audience. On the other hand, 20% of the customers will bring 80% of the problems. 20% of your team employees are giving 80% of the results.

Understanding this, you can use the power of leverage. After understanding this, Kane thought, ‘let’s apply this.

For which she went to her cousin’s newly opened bakery shop. There was not much footfall in that shop when she saw it there. Her cousin was performing well in many things. This means the taste of the cookies was good, the smell was good, the shop was also looking good, and everything was very good. But she noticed one thing, her cousin was very weak in attracting customers.

So you know what they did? They got a fan installed where the cookies were placed. The smell of freshly baked cookies started going out because of the fan.

Because of this, the people around here used to smell, which smelled very friendly, and they started coming.

His store has started doing well!

So, what things in your business can you do and get significant results?

Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect

After that, he went to learn the third lesson. He reached to learn the third lesson, which was ‘Why practice doesn’t make perfect, and what to do about it?

Now, to learn the third lesson, he reached the third member, Bob.

Bob told him something that shocked him very much! Bob says, ‘we are always taught that practice makes one perfect.

But this thing isn’t true. Kane got confused after listening to this. But later, Bob explained to him, see, for example, if I’m working in a company and work 40-50 hours every week, which becomes around 2200 hours in a year.

If I work for five years in the same company, which is around 11000 hours, that means I should become a master of that field. I should achieve mastery of that field. I should probably get good enough to get a CEO job, maybe! But it won’t happen.

Because we’ve learned in the Mastery book that if you put 10k hours into anything, you become a master. But on the other hand, maximum people don’t spend these hours well. That means they focus on repeating the work again and again.

And their intention isn’t to improve themselves but to finish the work, due to which many people, who can be the master in their field, cannot do so.

So, what’s the solution to this? Well, the solution is quite simple. You must keep such an intention that whatever you do, you can improve. And the second thing is, whatever the hours you invest, it’s very important to do so with focus, not just spend time.

And if you do these two simple things, you can achieve mastery in any field and become 1% better.

If you start doing these two simple things, you’ll become 1% better and achieve mastery in any field. Kane finds this lesson very interesting. He got very excited, so he decided to learn the fourth lesson.

30-day formula

Now to learn the fourth lesson, the author reaches out to Krish. Krish is a very great psychologist. He goes there and asks Kanes, it happens many times, and you also must have noticed that December is about to come, and we do a lot of parties last day and hang out with friends.

Richard Wiseman researched the new year resolutions, 88% of people fail in them, and that too in the first month. So, Kane was asking for a solution to this problem! That is what to do for consistency.

For this, Krish asks him to use 30 days formula. She says that Maxwell Maltz, a great writer, and cosmetic surgeon, says it takes 21 days to form a habit. For that, your first aim should be that you do work for at least 21 days.

In starting, it can cause you problems. But if you have made a goal that for 21 days, I’ll do this work, or say you will work for 30 days. Our mind requires this minimum time to make any action a habit. And once your habit is formed, you can do things regularly. So, in starting, focus on creating habits. And for this, take a 30 days challenge.

Think of any action you will take for 30 days, and you will do it continuously for 30 days. And then you won’t have to fight with your brain, and your probability of quitting will also decrease. Because the maximum number of people fail in the starting 30 days, you don’t have to fail. After listening to this, Kane decided on the new year that was about to come; he would make a new habit and take 30 days challenge.

Have some Rest

Now the author reached out to Jeff. Jeff was an Olympic triathlete who spoke something shocking to him. He spoke sometimes; you should focus on not doing any work. It seems a little bit confusing to Kane.

So he gave an example, Usain Bolt, in the 2008 summer Olympics, set a world record by completing a sprint of 100m in 9.69 seconds. But three years ago, no one could break the world record of 9.75 seconds. Why was it so?

It was so because his old trainer was focusing so much on training. But was not focusing on rest time.

He thought the more we do training; the more one will go forward. But when his coach realized that rest time is also essential, and when he started giving rest time, and due to rest, his result was reduced by 0.6 seconds. Sometimes people start pushing themselves to learn something interesting, and they start doing a lot of hard work.

Sometimes our brain and body are not used to working hard, which kills our motivation, and we cannot take any action. There is a crazy fact also that if you work 10-12 hours a day, your chances of heart attack increase by 57%, compared to those who work less than 10 hours.

If you stretch yourself too much, then this can give you a problem.

Do work, but focus on taking rest too. There should be a balance of both. If you work for fewer hours but with complete focus and work on improving by 1%, this can give you good results.

And the same thing Jeff taught Kane. After which Kane started applying all these things, his life changed completely. In his work and personal life, he saw a vast improvement in all things and earned a lot of money.

Conclusion

So, to sum up, you first must remember that instead of becoming 100% better in all things, focus on becoming 1% better every day. Remember, we can’t be excellent in all things, but we can become better in everything. At least from that place in which we already exist. And to make yourself better, you have to focus on these five things.

If you are interested in this book and want to know more, I would suggest you to purchase a hard copy and read it.