Compounding Returns

I spend a significant portion of time thinking in the meta about how to spend my time. After all, our outcomes, in my mind, are often a…

Compounding ReturnsI spend a significant portion of time thinking in the meta about how to spend my time. After all, our outcomes, in my mind, are often a…


I spend a significant portion of time thinking in the meta about how to spend my time. After all, our outcomes, in my mind, are often a direct result of our choices.

A change I recently made in my “time investment strategy” was to look for and invest in opportunities that would give me compounding returns.

What do I mean by compounding returns?

Well, I think there are lots of “time sucks” that scale linearly in the long run. While there may be a slight curve in the short term, over a long period of time, things flatten out and the returns you receive are directly correlated to how much work you put in. Meaning, over time, input equals output.

An example of this would be a minimum-wage job where you are not improving your efficiency over the long haul. Effectively you cap out. Not only from a capital perspective but also from a learning/skills perspective. Your abilities are limited and have a ceiling.

My writing business fell into this category as I was only really working on it to make $ and that curve (though increasing fast) I knew would soon fall into a linear cycle.

So what are things that give compounding returns?

Writing. The more I write, the better I get at it. My voice grows exponentially.

Businesses.

Hard skills (computer science, programming, etc.).

Compounding returns are like network effects for your personal abilities. They are superpowers.


Originally published at gonen.blog.

By jordangonen on February 6, 2018.

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Exported from Medium on February 17, 2018.