Can you trade a paperclip for a house?

Have you heard the story of the guy that traded a single red paperclip for a house?

This is no joke. In 2006, Canadian Kyle MacDonald traded his way from a single red paperclip to a two-story farmhouse through a series of 14 online trades. With each trade he asked people whether they had something slightly better or more valuable to trade for what he had in his possession.

This is how the trades progressed:

1. Paperclip for a fish shaped pen

2. Fish shaped pen for a hand sculpted doorknob

3. The doorknob for a camp stove

4. Camp stove for a generator

5. The generator traded for a keg of beer and a neon Budweiser sign

6. The keg for a snowmobile

7. Snowmobile for a two-person trip to British Columbia

8. The trip traded for a truck

9. The truck traded for a music recording contract

10. Contract traded for a year’s rent in Phoenix

11. The rent traded for an afternoon with rocker Alice Cooper

12. The afternoon with Cooper traded for a very rare KISS snow globe

13. He traded the snow globe for a paying movie role

14. Finally, he traded the movie role for a two-story farmhouse in Saskatchewan, Canada.

What a great story! And completely true (you can google it).

This story is a great illustration of the psychology of small wins: we are generally more willing to take a chance on something if it only feels like a small stretch. It would not have been possible for MacDonald to go directly from the paperclip to the house. Rather, he had to get there in degrees, each move being a little bit bigger and a little better than the previous move.

Rather than looking to jump from zero to perfect instantly, we need to approach our success as a series of small wins. Each day we have the opportunity to get a little bit better, smarter, stronger, healthier, closer to the goal we are aiming for. Small wins add up over time, like compound interest. Use them to your advantage – don’t underestimate the value of using what you have and starting small. Who knows, you might just get a nice house for your paperclip!

As always, thank you for reading and ending your week on a high.

At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.