Jenny and Erin

In Stephen Covey’s classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People he describes a universal truth called P/PC Balance. Brilliant as Stephen Covey is, I always get stuck trying to remember what P equals (what is produced), what PC equals (the ability to produce what is desired) and just exactly how they balance. Covey’s lingo leaves me feeling back in a high school algebra class; just wanting to lay my head down on my desk and fall asleep. Unfortunately it can be painful when life is the teacher waking you up and the pop quizzes come with real consequences. So, let’s look at the P/PC Balance in a different language – one of stories and fables.

Covey briefly illustrates the P/PC Balance Principle with the classic fable of the goose that laid golden eggs. For the sake of not so mathematically inclined story lovers, let’s expand his analogy. There once was a farmer with a beautiful farm. She had rows of corn and wheat, fresh vegetables and lots of animals. One morning the farmer found her goose had laid a golden egg. The farmer nearly threw the golden egg away, as it didn’t look how goose eggs are supposed to look. However, a small voice inside told her to get another opinion. So the farmer finished her chores and trudged to town carrying the golden egg. And trudge she did because gold is heavy! Once in town it only took a few minutes to confirm her goose hadn’t laid any ordinary egg. In fact, this egg was solid gold.

As you can imagine, the farmer was overjoyed thinking of how improved her life would be from the fortune of this one golden egg. Imagine her delight when the goose continued laying golden eggs every morning! She bought extra feed for her animals and new seeds to plant, certain that the miracle of the golden eggs would transform her life. And it did. Over time, the farmer started living differently and the farm no longer seemed so important. She ate at fancy restaurants and bought only the finest goods. Sometimes she was so busy having fun and buying clothes that she forgot to bring feed home for the goose. Again, she heard that small voice inside her head reminding her of how important her farm was. But she assured herself that she had an endless supply of golden eggs and the money would never run out. Just in case, she hired people to tend to her farm. However, she was so “busy” that she failed to check references or their work.

It didn’t take long until the farmer depended on the goose’s daily golden egg. She did have expenses after all! And as her expenses grew so did her desire for more. Soon the money from a daily golden egg was not enough to meet her bills. After a lot of thought and shushing the pesky voice inside her head she decided to kill the goose, convinced that once she cut it open she would find enough gold to live comfortably for the rest of her life. Unfortunately life doesn’t work that way. Upon killing the goose the farmer looked inside to find, well nothing. She placed her head in her hands and wept, realizing her mistake. As she stopped weeping she remembered that at least she still had the farm. She dried her eyes, but as her gaze shifted to the fields all she saw were weeds where the crops once stood. She looked to the barn and realized it was empty. In her pursuit of all the things the gold bought she neglected her farm. She would have to start again at the beginning.

If all you do is read this fable literally it seems pretty stupid; geese don’t lay golden eggs after all. But dig deeper and you will see how this story might hold clues to the thing you desire. What is this one thing? I don’t know exactly, as it is different for each of us. It might be a high paying job, fitting into your perfect size jeans, or having a loving relationship with a special someone.You may even have had it once in your life, but were unable to maintain it. What “it” is really doesn’t matter. What matters is can you get it, and once you’ve got it can you keep it?

In order to create effective success - effective being the operative word – the success needs to be sustainable. The only way to do this is to balance your golden egg with the health of the goose and to never, ever jeopardize the farm. If your golden egg is money, then your goose would be things such as your job, savings and investments.

If your primary focus is on the golden egg (the money), it is easy to get impatient and greedy and start hurting the goose (the source of the money). This may include charging daily purchases on your credit cards, tapping into the principal of your savings or not giving your all at work. Taken to the extreme you lose your job due to a lack of productivity, completely empty your savings and max out your credit cards. The goose is now dead.

If, on the other hand, your primary focus is taking care of the goose (the source of the money) to the exclusion of the golden egg (the money) you can end up with an empty life. You’ll get a great paying job, your savings account will grow large and it won’t take long to be debt-free; however to keep feeding the goose you’ll work 120 hour weeks and perhaps your spouse will leave because of your “frugality”.

Neither the goose nor its golden eggs are sustainable in the long term without balance. Although it takes practice, you can learn to understand how to balance between the goose and the golden egg by focusing on the difference between instant and ultimate gratification. You’ll learn to feed the goose healthy grain, appreciate each golden egg and practice some restraint when spending the bounty.

This principle stays true not only for money but for people and things. Work and work to buy a Corvette (your golden egg) and then drive it without regular maintenance (the goose) and it won’t be long before you have a Junker. Forget to treat the person you love (your golden egg) with kindness and consideration in the little things (the goose) and it isn’t long before you are fighting over everything. The importance of balancing your golden egg with the goose that creates it is a natural law and is true whether you acknowledge it in your life or not. You can use this knowledge to help or hurt yourself; ultimately the effort is the same and time passes either way.

Anyone can kill a goose. The real question is - are you willing to do what it takes to raise one?

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This entry was posted in Stephen Covey's 7 Habits on Monday, April 16th, 2007 by Jenny. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.