If any of you go to a gym on a regular basis, you're used to seeing the same people all the time. You may never even speak to them, but you know their faces and they know your face. And they're usually in the same areas of the facility, on the same pieces of equipment, too (and so are you).

I went to a gym that I usually go to on a Friday once, and many of the familiar faces were gone- empty treadmills, and none of the usual suspects on the weight machines. The front desk guy was there, though, and I asked him, "Everyone started their weekends, early, huh?"

I read a story about how Diddy (or Puff[y] [Daddy] or Sean Combs), when he first started his music company, pissed off some of his employees. It was the quiet period in the music business, after Thanksgiving and before the New Year. Usually, music companies gave employees vacation time during this month or so of inactivity. Puffy, though, announced, "I don't give a fuck what the rest of the industry does, we're working!" Everyone grumbled, but work, they did. And you saw what Diddy did in the music business over the past 20 years.

I talked about the third day principle before: Work when everyone else is not, and make it a habit. String enough of those days together, and the gap grows over time. This is a practice in discipline. This is not a question of skill or talent -- it's a decision.

The challenge of separation days is that you don't see the immediate results. No one will hand you an award. You get zero recognition, because after all, no one's there to see you doing it. And that's why most people never grasp the concept, let alone exploit it.


But you're reading this now. So you're responsible for what you now know. Use it.