Yesterday the “cleaning ladies” came to our house. They come every week.

If you wanna make your spouse happy, give ‘em cleaning ladies. Laura is always beaming after the cleaning ladies leave, cuz her house is spotless and organized.

I know it’s sexist to call them cleaning ladies, but never once has any of them been a man. I am merely reporting the facts such as they are.

People try to outsource all manner of “hard jobs” in their business. “I want someone to do Google AdWords for me.” “I need a copywriter.” “I need to hire a salesman.” All those things can be outsourced, but they’re HARD to outsource successfully.

You know what’s easy to outsource?

-Toilets
-Cooking
-Laundry
-Mowing the lawn
-Shoveling snow

All that is pure $10/hour work. If you’re doing that stuff instead of returning phone calls from clients, you’re trading $100 bills for $10 bills.

Get yourself a cleaning service. Do it for a happier spouse.

This morning after the cleaning ladies had straightened, I brushed against a magazine and it fell off the table onto the floor.

My most natural reaction is to NOT pick it up. I veer towards messiness.

But then I remembered there is a universal law of multiplication:

1 magazine on the floor = 3 magazines on the floor.

In other words, if you leave ONE there, two more will fall on the floor and now you will have three.

By next tuesday, we’ll have six entire piles of stuff stacked up all over the floor.

Because in real life, 1 = 3 = 10 = 30.

Why? Chaos theory. Exact same thing that causes 80/20. This is the REAL law of attraction, in everyday experience. Not the airy-fairy one in “The Secret” where you wish for a Lamborghini and it magically shows up.

Clutter attracts clutter. Success attracts success.

There’s this email list called “Flylady” where this lady emails you 10 times a day and tell you to clean up your messes. She’s still around, with over 600,000 subscribers. Flylady talks about “Hot Spots.”

Those are spots that ATTRACT clutter. Like that little table in the corner that just begs you lay down a kids toy or a letter you just opened. And then 1 = 3 = 10 = 30.

It’s the chair with one sweater hung over the back, that grows into a sweater, a parka, a scarf and a pair of tennis shoes tied together. Finally the chair tips back and smacks on the floor.

In chaos theory, they call that chair a “strange attractor.”

There are strange attractors in business too. I once wrote a classic email called “How Google kicked Yahoo in the Ass.” I said, if Google makes 10% more on every search, then Google will whup up on Yahoo, because 10% = 30%.

Also true when people gather together. This is why I do 4-Man Intensives. By yourself, you’re weak. But my office is a hot spot. It’s not a Flylady hot spot, it’s a success hot spot. 1 successful person = 3 successful people. And pretty soon it’s 10.

One time a guy came to 4-Man. A bogus lawsuit had been hanging over his head for years. One of those deals that just makes you furious, because of how people abuse our court system.

At the end of the first day he said “Today I had such a good time, I didn’t think about that lawsuit all afternoon. First time that’s happened in 2 years.”

The next morning I was centering myself for the day. I felt a strong prompting to mention his lawsuit and talk about forgiveness, choosing a spirit of blessing the person who is suing him – even though the whole thing was bogus.

I began our day by talking about that, and Financial Sozo, and “cleaning out your financial head trash.” Then, right when I was about to move on to something else, his phone buzzed.

He said, “It’s my lawyer, he wants me to call him right away.”

I pointed to his phone and I announced, “It’s GOOD news! It’s GOOD NEWS!”

His wife looks at me and says, “When that guy calls, it’s NEVER good news.”

I insisted: “It’s good news!”

He leaves the room, takes the call.

Comes back 5 minutes later: “They want to settle, for $10,000 less than what I decided I was willing to settle for 3 weeks go. Best thing is, this is NOT going to go to trial, which would be a nightmare.”

2 weeks later, the whole sad saga was in his rear view mirror.

Hot spots. Strange attractors. And, dare I say, Providence.

Never forget:

1 = 3 = 10 = 30.

Gather with the right folks – then kindle the fires. Fire attracts fire.

Perry Marshall

Next 4-Man is December 16-17. Apply at www.4ManIntensive.com