Quality Inflation and The Red Queen Hypothesis (3 Min Read) | Vol. 145

April 04, 2025

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” –  W. Edwards Deming

Quality Inflation and the Red Queen Hypothesis

In 1973, evolutionary biologist Leigh Van Valen proposed the idea that species must proactively evolve to maintain their place in any ecosystem. The only way to avoid extinction is to adapt. Basically, evolve or perish! He named it the “Red Queen Hypothesis” after a passage from Lewis Carroll’s Into the Looking Glass. It’s the part where Alice and the Red Queen run as fast as they can but get nowhere.

“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else — if you ran very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”

“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”

“If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

When I read Into the Looking Glass, I thought this was just part of the absurd backward world Alice stumbled into. It never occurred to me that this could be a metaphor for excellence in life and business. Being the best at anything is a moving target. The work required to be the best today will, almost certainly, be much more challenging next year. And the next and the next. As you improve, so does the competition. Everyone is running, some faster than others. Call it quality inflation. 

When we launched The ONE Thing podcast in 2017, we thought we were late to the game. There were already hundreds of thousands of podcasts competing for attention. We worked hard and broke into the top 150 podcasts. Today, there are over 3.2 million active podcasts!* What worked in 2017, barely gets you noticed in 2024. Today, the best podcasts would more accurately be described as media companies. 

Curious, I looked at what it took to be the #1 real estate team in the KW network between 2010 and 2024. In 2010, the number one team earned $2.2M in gross commission income (GCI). Last year, the worst year for real estate sales since 1995, the #1 team earned over $14.6 million.** That’s a more than 6x increase in just 15 years. 

Every day you have two choices. You can choose to keep pace with the world around you or to outpace the world in the pursuit of your potential. 

One question to ponder in your thinking time: What’s ONE commitment I can make to be better tomorrow than I am today? 

Make an Impact!
Jay Papasan
Co-author of The ONE Thing & The Millionaire Real Estate Agent 

* Source: ExplodingTopics
** Note, if you look back to 2022, the top team earned $56.6 million! That’s a 25x increase from 2010. 

P.S.  If you’re looking for a way to identify and double down on what matters most, our 4×4 Bootcamp might be just what you need. Four days that could transform how you approach your most important work. We start on Monday. Click here to save your seat.