/\Musing/\ of (an intellectual ?) nomad!
I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us — don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.
Hey ya, if you think that you resonate same vibes as Emily Dickinson, then I think we are NOT a pair :P. Sorry to disappoint you. haha. Cause, my philosophy is to be somebody and not to boast about it. More specifically, to live a life that is meaningful to me (well…, if blogging is a form of boasting according to your world view, I’m sorry again :P. I see blogging differently ;) )
While living an absolutely “positive” life at this point, I thought of bloggoing of an interesting concept that linger my mind sometime back. The concept is “power of slow compounding”. Personally I find this concept to be very intriguing. In this post, I intend to share what it means and how I personally look at it. Without further ado, let me get it started.
Basically, the idea behind “power of slow compounding” is pretty straight forward. It means, as opposed to the linear growth, or linear scaling, the true scaling, or true growth comes from compound effect. For example, let’s say we want to get better at something. True mastery comes from starting small and slowly compounding or slowly stretching skill over time. Stretching over time is a must. When the growth is slow, steady, and it’s compounding over time, it gives ample time build a solid foundation. Plus, it stretches you. I builds you, and it’s always compounding. I presonally prefer this because this effect is also about constantly “becoming” and creating the best version. The important fact to emphasise here is the “compounding factor”. For example, let’s say if you do 1 push-up in day 1, you have to do at least 2-push ups in day 2 (and if needed day 3), and continue to stretch over the remaining time.
The end objective is to compound. In this journey, the methods might need tweeks and changes. Thus, it’s important to be flexible and iterate, or refine the strategy :) . I think having a some sort of direction is vital here. I’m not a big fan of “plans”. Because plans are nothing but big fat guesses. Your financial plans are your financial guesses. Reality is always subjected to randomness + unforeseeble events. So simply have an idea of what you want to do/ achieve and iterate. Don’t plan to minute details. Just embrace each event (that’s my philosophy :)).
I think that’s fair enough explanation for “power of slow compounding”. Having spent a surface area of my time everyday thinking about what I really want in my life, I realised that what I really want is “wealth” ;). I mean, why not. I believe, even though we humans are multi-variate creatures, we all can summerized in petty ways. Weather you think it or not, deep down we all like to be wealthy. I personally believe that we all can be wealthy and there’s infinite resources for that. We all can be wealthy means, it’s a positive sum game, where everyone is a winner, not a zero-sum game, where there’s only one winner.
Personally, I am interested in creating wealth in four areas of my life ;). Wealth is not only about $$$ :P. I prefer to compound my wealth in following areas:
- health
- career
- relationships
- money
I believe we all can create and compound wealth in these four areas of our lives. To me, health is #1, career and relationships area at same level. Health, career, and relationships are tightly intertwined. As a by product of that, I reckon we get $$$ (the return on our contribution). I mean, if you are a born rich, just skip this post and go back to your private jet. (bdw, is money so important, personally I believe it is soo important, because capitalism drives the world, weather you like it or not. Money is an instrument of change. There’s a whole psychology behind money and that is for a separate post :)).
Coming back to the points I was making, so yeah, personally I believe we all can compound capital in the four area (i) HEALTH, (ii), CAREER (iii) RELATIONSHIPS, and (iv) $$$ MONEY $$$. “Power of slow compounding” offers us “a methodical way” to amass capital in those four areas. Slow compounding is just one strategy which can explain logically. I completely understand there can be several other ways. But, since “power of slow compounding” methodical, I trust it offers a more definite optimism on future :)
Start small and work on (i.e. compound) on your health. Do the same for your relationships. Specially when it comes to relationships, don’t fail fast if it’s worth. If it’s a one-night stand, fail fast is okay. With your significant other, you shouldn’t fail fast, with your business partners (if you know them for long enough) you shouldn’t fail fast. You gotta be in the flow — fail fast like premature ejaculation may be okay for one-night stand. Similar sentiments go with your career. Start from where you are and start doing, compound career capital, iterate. Learn financial literacy and invest. Compound your financial capital over long stretches of time.
Bdw, another important thing when it comes to career. I firmly believe in career (and in relationships, and in health) hard work really does matter. But hard work only matters in the right context. For example, when it comes to career other important factors such as, (i) people you are working with, (ii) on what you are working on (iii) where you are working, and (iv) time you are working also matters (i.e. hard work + right people + right time + right thing + right place) :)
That’s it for this post. Hope you enjoyed it. If so, give me a lot of “claps” ;) or buy me a pint next time :D
