How much toothpaste do you use when you have a brand-new tube of toothpaste? A big ol’ glop of it, right?

But when you open that cabinet drawer and find a nearly empty tube… my oh my, how the game changes. It starts off with an insane amount of squeezing, twisting, and turning. […] With a precarious balance of biting, one hand squeezing and tube twisting, while your other hand somehow tries to get the brush bristles to scoop out toothpaste, you have a victory.

Isn’t it funny how much we change based upon what is available? Here is what is fascinating: Parkinson’s Law triggers two behaviors when supply is scant. When you have less, you do two things.

The first is obvious: you become frugal.

When there is less toothpaste in the tube, you use less to brush your teeth.

But something else, far more impactful happens: you become extremely innovative and find all sorts of ways to extract that last drop of toothpaste from the tube.

LESSON: You need to intentionally make less toothpaste (money) available to brush your teeth (to operate your business). When there is less, you will automatically run your business more frugally (that’s good) and you will run your business far more innovatively (that’s great!).

Profit First, p.39