Invest in Yourself – The Results will Compound

I’ve been thinking about the power of compounding, especially as it pertains to investing in myself..? This year I’ve been presented with some of the greatest opportunities of my career.? There was no way to predict them.? I didn’t generate them.? They were made available to me based on the work that I have done throughout my career.

It made me ask questions.? What did I do to deserve this?? What have I done differently this year versus last year?

Two seemingly unconnected thoughts came to my mind.

Warren Buffett accumulated more than 90% of his wealth after the age of 60.

Sam Walton said “Like most overnight successes, mine was 20 years in the making.”

Investments are not linear.? They compound.? In order to illustrate compounding, let me show you how quickly the font grows when I double the size of it by 2.? 1-2-4-8-16-32-64-128-256.?

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See how that works?

At the beginning it’s so small you can’t see it.? Then all of a sudden it’s so big it consumes the entire page.

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When I’ve invested in myself, the results are not linear.? They compound.

Here are some of my reflections about the process of self-investment and personal growth.

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1.????? At the beginning, it feels like insanity.

What’s the old saying?? Insanity is trying the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result.

When you’re trying something new, before it works, it always looks like insanity.? It only seems obvious looking backwards.

Before he was Jay-Z, Sean Carter would practice his Grammy acceptance speech while he walked to the subway.? Kanye West did the same thing.? Before he helped create the American financial system, Alexander Hamilton was an orphan with no money.? Before he created Space-X and Tesla, Elon Musk was an odd kid that read every book in the library and hung out by himself.

It always looks crazy in the beginning.

Maybe you and I will never win a grammy, but we will try something new.

For me, I had to learn a new sales system and how to sell to new industries.? There was no proof of concept inside my agency, and the people inside the business had success without it.? Some people saw the change as unnecessary.

For a long time, it looked like they were right.? Look at the 1-16.? It doesn’t look like much.? 128 comes out of nowhere and then 256 overwhelms you.

Don’t worry if the beginning feels like a 1.

2.????? Learn a lot of things.? They’re all connected, even if the connection isn’t obvious at the time.

I have a friend that laughs at me for my reading tastes.? He says they’re crazy broad.

I like to read sci-fi, fantasy, literature, crime novels, poetry, business books, psychology, art history, the craft of writing and filmography, and biographies about politicians and business leaders and artists.

Charlie Munger was right – the nature of man and world is evident everywhere.? The similarities between the creative process and a professional athlete’s training are uncanny.? Albert Einstein connected concepts of philosophy and physics to develop the theory of relativity.

I didn’t see the connections between all these things at first.? The latticework only becomes visible over time, with continued study over many years.

In college I studied literature and writing.

The discipline required to be an excellent writer is the same discipline required to be excellent at sales.? It requires doing the right things at the right time of day.? It requires working on a project, even when all you hear is no, or the creative muse isn’t speaking to you.?

Then good things happen all at once.

Later in life I’ve started investing in individual companies in the stock market.? I’ve read 10-K’s.? I had to read books about accounting so that I could make some kind of sense about the financial statements I reading.

At first, I was clueless.?

Honestly, I still am regarding some of the accounting games that people will play.

But I’ve gotten better.

Now when I sell insurance to an account, I break down the business the same way I would as if I was investing in it.? I want to see a good balance sheet. I like seeing growth over time.? I want to see strong management that has financial skin in the game.

Learning how to invest in companies has made me better at insurance.

Nothing learned is ever a wasted effort.? Even if it’s not obvious how you’ll use the information at the time.

3.????? Buy back your time whenever you can.

I remember meeting with a company representative almost a decade ago.? I told him that I enjoyed mowing the lawn.? It was one of the few things in my life that had a definitive beginning and end and was finished in an hour.? I could see the benefits of my work.

“I used to think the same thing, until I started paying someone else to mow my lawn,” he said.? We laughed.

A couple years later I moved into a townhouse community that mows the lawn so long as there is no fence in the back yard.? I don’t miss mowing the lawn.

I used to love grocery shopping.? I had fun strolling the aisles and picking up random foods to try.? During Covid, my wife started using Instacart for groceries so that we wouldn’t have to go to crowded public places.

I don’t miss grocery shopping.

It’s not that I’m lazy.? I use that time to do different things.? I write blogs and LinkedIn posts on Saturday morning.? I also spend that time exercising or playing video games with my son.

I’ve been able to buy those hours back into my day and use them on activities that are more meaningful.

Over time, those hours accumulate.? That time spent bonding with my son built that relationship.? The hours spent writing blog posts have helped build the content for my business, which has created inbound leads.

I’d rather have those results than the time looking at Campbell’s soup in the grocery store or pushing a lawnmower.

All of us are limited to 24 hours a day.? Our only choice is how we allocate that time.

Jeff Bezos gets 24 hours a day.? The way he allocates that time is more efficient than I could imagine.

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4.????? Investing in yourself is the best possible investment

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Warren Buffet says this:

“Generally Speaking, investing in yourself is the best thing you can do.? Anything that improves your own talents; nobody can tax it or take it away from you.”

Or as Steve Martin put it – if you want to be successful, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

When you become 256, you consume the screen.? You become the obvious option.? You consume the entire page.

And no one can take it from you.

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Conclusion:

For anyone that’s struggling right now in any line of work, I hope you hear this as a message of encouragement.? Maybe with some tactical advice on how to accomplish your dreams.? We all want different things from life.? But they all start with making investments in ourselves.

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