Issue #7 of Coffee Talk.
Feature
Punching the Clock
If you’ve ever read a story about or seen an interview with an entrepreneur, inevitably you’ll hear about how they got started. Hewlett & Packard in the garage; Tony Xu delivering meals himself; and the dozens of startups launched out of college dorm rooms. The stories are a point of pride for the entrepreneurs (they should be) and a point of amazement for us. But should they be? After all, how else could something as big as DoorDash start? Except from one short delivery across downtown San Francisco in a beat up Hyundai?
That shouldn’t take anything away from these founder’s stories. One delivery across town is very different than turning DoorDash into a multi-billion dollar business. There is an immeasurable amount of blood, sweat, tears and literally millions of deliveries that made that happen over many years. There is a whole lot of punching the clock. Day, after day, after day.
But if it’s obvious that all great successes start off so small, then why don’t more of us take the first steps? And then keep taking them? Keep punching the clock? Gate’s law helps explain it:
“We tend to overestimate what we can get done in the short-term and underestimate what we can accomplish in the long-term”. - Bill Gates (and lots of other thinkers)
A perfect example of Gate’s law is compound interest when investing. What would happen if you invested $1 a day from your twenties until the end of your life? While that $1 per day would only add up to ~$400 or less in the first year (not exactly a life changing amount of money), over a few decades you could accumulate over $600,000 with this strategy. While it’s obvious in investing, we can actually do the math, it’s more difficult to measure compound interest in other areas of life. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
Relationships:
After 80 years of following a group of Boston adults, The Harvard Study of Adult Development revealed that close relationships are the single most important factor in our well-being as we age. Chances are your most valued and deep relationships are with the people you’ve spent the most time having positive interactions with. What would happen if you connected with your closest friends one more time per month?
Work:
If you’re able to learn 10% more than your peers by staying later or accepting the tougher assignments, what would happen over the years? Chances are you’d be the one winning promotions and climbing the ladder.
Health:
As the old saying goes “everything in moderation”. Loss of health doesn’t happen all at once, it happens one too many drinks at a time. Sometimes what we call “getting old” is really just what an accumulation of poor health habits feels like.
Experiences:
In Moonwalking with Einstein, Joshua Foyer writes about how high numbers of unique experiences help solidify our memories of certain times in our lives. Unique experiences sharpen our minds, while repetitive days blend together. By having fun on the weekend you might actually be investing in a lifetime of memories worth looking back on.
Regardless of where it is applied, it’s worth remembering that compound interest is working continuously in the background. If you keep punching the clock on the things that matter, it’ll be on your side.
Quotables & Quizzicals
“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.” – Albert Einstein
What if you thought of yourself as a mini [insert dream job here] for a day? How would that change your perspective on what you needed to do to start living that dream?
Worth Reading
10 competitive advantages anyone can work on. #5 - Low Time Preference, rings especially true. “In a world of people seeking instant gratification, this is a meaningful edge.”
What does the perfect day look like? How can we get more of them?
Loved this perspective. Particularly on friends and health. Great thought to start the day and weekend on.