The Difference Between Trying Once and Showing Up Again

The 1% Begins Here

The night was still. My footsteps echoed softly against the pavement as Loki trotted beside me, leash loose, tail cutting gentle arcs through the air. I had already walked him once that morning. I didn’t need to be out here again. But something inside whispered, “Go.”

It wasn’t discipline that brought me out. It was a quiet nudge, the kind that says, “Do it again,” even when no one is watching.

That’s when I remembered Steve Jobs’s remark, the difference between the 1 percent who succeed and the 99 percent who don’t is simple: the 1 percent never give up. They keep going when it’s inconvenient, tiring, or unseen.

We often mistake perfection for excellence. But real excellence is endurance. It’s walking again when you’ve already done your share for the day.

The opposite of success is not failure. The opposite of success is giving up.

You don’t fail when you fall. You fail when you stop walking.

Fun Fact 1: Improving just 1 percent each day for a year multiplies your results by 37.78 times. The math of faithfulness is exponential.

(1.01)^365 = 37.78

The 1% in Real Life

The 1 percent mindset is not an idea. It is a rhythm that repeats across seasons of life. Each time I stayed when it was easier to stop, something unseen in me grew stronger.

1. The 10-Year Mentoring Journey: Following When It’s Easier to Quit

It began in 2016 with a reluctant “yes” to a conference in Ipoh. My wife agreed to go for the food. I followed.

We watched The Passion of the Christ on the flight there. In a crowded buffet hall, Dato Peter waved us over. We talked about education, exchanged contacts, and left. Simple, almost forgettable.

Back in Johor Bahru, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to reach out. That one message turned into a decade of monthly trips from Johor to Kuala Lumpur, one day each month, for ten years straight.

There were nights I almost gave up. Ten-hour drives, late-night returns, the cost of time and family. Once I told myself, “Maybe next month.” But that thought scared me. If I skipped once, I might never start again. So I went.

He didn’t preach lessons. He lived them. Through long car rides, funerals, basketball games, and family meals, I watched consistency, grace, and restraint in motion.

We grew from four staff to 180, from 20 students to 1,000. The true return wasn’t financial. It was character, patience, humility, conviction.

Fun Fact 2: The Harvard Grant Study found that long-term mentorship and stable relationships increase life satisfaction by over 40 percent.

2. Four Children: Parenting as Daily Mentorship

Parenting revealed another face of the 1 percent. Every child exposed parts of me I hadn’t yet grown into.

Many avoid large families because of cost and chaos. But what the world calls stress, the 1 percent call stewardship. Each child refines you, forcing clarity in priorities, efficiency in time, and empathy in response.

My father once told me, “You only value health when you’ve lost it.” The same applies to family. You only understand commitment when you’re fully inside it.

Parenting is irreversible. Once you say yes, you can’t un-parent. You can only grow through it.

Fun Fact 3: Families who practise daily rituals such as shared meals, gratitude circles, and bedtime stories show 47 percent higher emotional security in children. Growth compounds through consistency, not intensity.

My four children are my greatest mentors. Each one teaches a different virtue. The eldest learns leadership, the middle ones cooperation, the youngest observation. Together, they teach me patience, the long kind.

3. Mentoring Others: Planting What You’ve Lived

After years of being mentored, the rhythm turned outward. I began guiding others, younger leaders, teachers, friends.

At first, I was impatient. I wanted visible transformation. But seeds sprout in their own time. Some bloom quickly; others sleep through seasons.

My role wasn’t to make them grow. My role was to stay long enough to witness it.

Fun Fact 4: Mentors report a 33 percent increase in self-awareness and 42 percent improvement in clarity of purpose. When you teach, you learn twice.

Being mentored taught me humility. Mentoring others taught me grace. Both are the slow art of the 1 percent, unseen, repetitive, sacred.

The Long Obedience

People admire success stories but forget the process behind them. Leadership doesn’t grow in a moment. It compounds daily.

John Maxwell calls it The Law of Process: leadership develops daily, not in a day.

My decade-long journey proved that 6am departures, 1am returns, countless meetings. No fireworks, only slow fire.

Fun Fact 5: Neuroscience shows it takes about 10 000 hours, roughly ten years, to achieve mastery. Faithfulness is the invisible genius.

In business, every life and every enterprise is a transaction of value. What you give consistently becomes what you’re trusted with eventually. The 1 percent don’t chase moments. They build movements.

Build What Few Will Finish

The 1 percent principle applies everywhere: business, marriage, parenting, purpose.

The crowd calls it stress. The 1 percent call it stewardship.

Parenting is a lifelong classroom. Mentoring is a lifelong apprenticeship. Marriage is a lifelong covenant. None can be delegated.

We live in an age that glorifies growth but avoids cost. Yet everything that truly grows is rooted in sacrifice.

So begin with one irreversible yes. Make one commitment you can’t undo. Plant a seed you’re willing to water for the rest of your life.

Faithfulness will do what ambition cannot.

The Reverse That Redefines It All

The world celebrates the fast. Heaven honours the faithful.

The 1 percent aren’t the smartest or strongest. They are the ones who keep walking when no one else is watching.

It started with one reluctant walk. It became ten years of obedience. It turned into a life of legacy.

As Scripture reminds us, “He who is faithful in little will be faithful in much.”

The 1 percent begins not with motivation, but with motion. Not with brilliance, but with belief. Not with perfection, but with persistence.

It always begins with one quiet step in the dark.

So ask yourself: Where in your life have you stopped at once?

Because your next small, reluctant, faithful step could be the start of your 1 percent.

Final Line: The opposite of success isn’t failure. It’s giving up.