Time Billionaires

This past week I read a letter that investor Anthony Pompliano wrote to his investors called Focusing on What is Most Important. In the letter, he tells investors that he will be winding down his fund in order to give himself more time to spend on the “things” that really matter to him.

As a focal point of his letter, he brings up the concept of a “time billionaire.” It is based on the idea that time is the only asset that can’t be purchased, and therefore the most valuable. The wealthiest people in the world are not those with an abundance of money, but rather those with an abundance of time.

By that definition, we will never be wealthier than we are at this very moment.

He then draws on the following example to illustrate his point.

Warren Buffett is worth tens of billions of dollars, but no young person would switch lives with him if they had to be in their 90s. In turn, the young person is wealthier than Warren Buffett because of time.

This example is obviously extreme, but it illustrates the seemingly absurd pattern we see all too often. People spend their “best” years chasing wealth, only to arrive decades later at the same conclusion. Wealth beyond a certain (and surprisingly low threshold) isn’t fulfilling and they have effectively squandered their most precious resource (time) chasing it.

The funny thing is that I’ll continue to increase my financial net worth, but I’ll continue to lose my time net worth. Most of my peers and colleagues are well into their 40s, 50s, and 60s. They’ve been chasing financial wealth for the majority of their life, yet they have wasted their wealth of time with reckless abandon. I’m committed to making sure that doesn’t happen.

My takeaway from the letter isn’t that wealth is bad or that chasing money is evil. Hardly anything in this world is ever that black and white.

My takeaway is that everything has a price. Not much that is worthwhile in this world comes without one.

For me, it ultimately comes down to answering three questions:

1. What do I want?
2. What is the price to get it?
3. Am I willing to pay it?

I think far too often, we don’t give much thought to any of these questions, and instead, embark full-speed-ahead, with no clear aim or direction.

I get it. Deciding what you want is scary.

The problem with deciding what you want (defining the parameters for success) is that in doing so, you also must define the parameters for failure. Some people opt for a 0% chance of failure, even if it also means a 0% chance of success (although I’d argue these people fail by default).

These aren’t questions that should be answered in a day, but they definitely aren’t questions that should be ignored for decades.

I can’t help you come up with answers to any of these questions. No one can answer them except for you.

I will however leave you with one of my favorite quotes.

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

We either get busy living or we get busy dying.

Here’s to getting busy living.

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