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That’s what we live in – a world obsessed with numbers!
The number on our pay check.
The number on our bank statement.
The number of our followers.
We measure almost everything by numbers – and give it value in proportion.
Last week, I was in a discussion with the chairman of a hospital who wanted me to help start a pediatric heart surgery department. The conversation ran like this:
Him: “So, how many operations do you carry out every week?”
(There! A number, again!) I gave him a figure.
Him: “Isn’t that too few?”
Me: “Yes, that’s why I work hard to raise funds. So I can sponsor more.”
Him: “Don’t you feel you’re wasting your time?”
Me: “…???”
Him: “Aren’t you afraid of losing your skills?”
Me: “Huh…???!!!”
His point was that I’d be busier operating at his hospital. But I’m a ‘numbers guy’ too. Just different numbers.
Like 47,000 – which is the number of children with heart defects in my state alone.
Like 20,000 – which is the average amount, in rupees, that my typical family can afford for treatment.
His hospital is looking at the 5% (or less) of the population that has 150,000 rupees necessary for a heart operation. But with Rs.150,000 in hand, that parent has CHOICE.
Something my patient’s parent does not have.
Yes, I could work at a hospital like that – and be ‘busy’. But that would mean another child would not be able to have treatment.
That ’small’ number has a different kind of meaning – to me, and to my patients’ families, and to my generous donors.
Numbers matter in other things, too.
For my recent book launch of “Think, Write & Retire”, I made it a point to approach partners who will help promote it – NOT on the basis of how many people they could reach, but primarily on the strength of the relationship they have with their audience – and the degree of committment and involvement they have showed over the years with my CHD work.
Yes, some of them had humunguous lists.
Others had tiny ones.
And – no surprise here – I noticed ABSOLUTELY NO correlation between list size and responsiveness in terms of sales of books. Some small lists out-performed bigger ones by a MULTIPLE.
Or take my in-house email lists as an example. Some have thousands of prospects – and fewer than 100 check out a link I send them. On the contrary, a list of just a couple of hundred clients will often generate more clicks than them – and more sales, too.
Numbers matter. But the right ones.
47 is a small number. Though not when you realize it is the number of children operated for congenital heart defects, sponsored by the Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation.
Then, it becomes a meaningful number.
More meaningful, maybe, than the bigger ones a chairman of a corporate hospital tossed around during a meeting last week.
What numbers are you obsessed with?
Why?
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