How to Use the Power of Compounding to Succeed Business and Life
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Compounding life. I have to admit, I’m nervous today. I’ve been batting around, writing down various different ideas and how I am going to try to get my point across today. One of the more important podcasts I think I’ve ever done, quite honestly. It’s a, you want to call it a life hack? Maybe.
You know, what’s interesting about life hacks is how simple they are. The things that hide in plain sight right in front of us. It’s amazing to me. We have entire industries that are set up in regards to secrets and self -health books and motivational this and all of these various different things. And most of it I find to be
absolutely ridiculous. mean, it’s nothing wrong with being motivated and looking at people who are successful and you take a look at the work that they’ve put in and whether or not the you know, that they’re an awesome baseball player, basketball player, they’re great at their business, they’re a great chef, they’re a saint, whatever it may be. Something that they miss, in my opinion, in all of this, I mean, you can watch all of these things.
What do these people do? What do all these people do? One of the things that I talk about when it comes to what I do for a living is compounding. I’ve talked about playing with the compounding calculator. I’ve written columns about this. actually grabbed the column that I did back in July of 2005, and I was given digs at
my brother Matt, not digs, I was actually compliments because my brother Matthew, he majored in mathematics in college. And I’ve said this before, math and I, we don’t get along too well. math class, I’d be dozing off and drool coming out the side of my mouth. And I don’t know how anyone majors in math. I appreciate it. I love it. I try to understand it as best I can, but either you have it or you don’t have it. And he happened to have
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I was, you know, basically cracking jokes because my brother Matt can be quite pithy in his comments from time to time. And I remember asking Matt, again, I wrote this column, how anyone in their right mind could major in mathematics. I was kind of saying it’s how difficult it is. And Matt’s, you know, in his way of speaking, math is power is what he had to say. And he’s right wrong. He’s right.
Math is power. And Albert Einstein said the most powerful force in the universe is compounding interest. And where I think Albert Einstein is wrong here, it’s not just the interest, it’s compounding everything. Now we talk about this, I’ve written our rules to the road as far as investing for Markowski Investments.
Compounding the royal road to riches, play with a compounding calculator where you’re compounding safe yields over time and you’re constantly adding via dollar cost averaging, you will become wealthy. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Well, we’ll take that and put that aside. I want to talk about compounding life.
Compounding life is, again, it’s simple, but it’s not easy.
Simple, but it’s not easy. What we as human beings do and what we’re told, what we’re told, write down your goals, write down your goals. Where do you want to be? What are your plans? Where do you want to go? And the other things, make sure you’re shooting for the stars and you’re to go there. And in my opinion, I think this is oftentimes where people automatically derail themselves because those goals and
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Again, you want to reach those, you want to think lofty, but you don’t want your focus to be on there. You don’t want your focus to be on the goal. You want your focus to be in the here and now, in everything you do, living in the moment. Again, no, I’m not going off on some sort of hippie tangent here by any stretch of the imagination.
Let’s look at a few things. I wrote some things down. I want to be a better investor. I want to build wealth. Just talk about our rules of the road and number one being compounding. Better person for me. Being a better father. Being a better husband. Being better in one’s faith. Better in one’s business or craft. Better at one’s sport.
Now, what in God’s creation is compounding have to do with this? And again, why shouldn’t we be setting all sorts of goals and trying to achieve them? Again, I’m not saying you shouldn’t set goals. I’m not saying you shouldn’t set goals, but you shouldn’t focus on your goals. You should focus on the process of achieving those goals. Okay, I hope I’m not confusing.
people here. I hope I’m not. Listen, if you focus, if you focus on what you’re going to do today, and so I talk about compounding to best safe fields, how they build over time, you focus today. You focus today, you say, you know what, I want to be a better person.
I wanna be a better person. I wanna be better in one’s faith. I wanna be a better father. wanna be a better husband. I wanna be all these things, okay? You’re not gonna get from point A to point Z, okay, overnight. This is the problem. This is where people fall apart because then again, they get frustrated. They get frustrated because they’re focusing too much on their goal and not on what they can do today.
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What do we say week in week out on our radio show? Everything in life that has meaning, value and worth involves work, time and effort. How about doing a little bit every single day? You wanna be a better person, wanna be a father, be a husband, wanna be whatever it may be. You focus on doing a little bit today, being better than yesterday.
building upon
then guess what? The next day, you do a little more. You do a little more. it compounds being better in one’s business. just, again, my favorite television series over the past several years. I don’t watch much TV, but again, I have an affinity for this program simply because I love restaurants and I love food. The show The Bear. And there’s flashbacks with the story about this family and in particular the chef going
in all the various different high end restaurants that he’s worked with and the various different chefs that he’s worked with. And, you know, how, you know, he has to work in the here and now and learn from that chef. You know, again, you know where he wants to go. But focusing on learning today and getting better today. It’s interesting. It’s how I coached. As well, and I say, you know, thing about life.
The interesting thing about life is, know, how again, simple but not easy, but rules are applicable across the board. Same rules again, interesting. Same rules as applying for becoming a better investor. It’s the same rules. It’s going to make you a better person. Again, a little bit every single little bit more every single day compounding it. My practices consisted of again, a process, repetition, getting better. Okay.
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Get a little bit better every single practice and build upon that. Focus on the fundamentals, the simplicity of it all. And if you do that, you do that with everything, everything that you’re gonna do. Like I said, don’t be distracted by your goals, okay? I’ve got plans, want, don’t, that’s distracting quite frankly. Focus on the process.
Focus on the process, focus on the here and now. What can I do today to be better than yesterday? Just a little
little bit every single day and you’re going to get there. Slowly but surely you’re going to get where you want to be. And again, you’re going to see all sorts of opportunities. You’re going to learn things along the way. Might change your path here and there. But so many people, so many people get discouraged. Discouraged and then they quit.
and they get frustrated. Why? They’re not focusing on today. They’re focusing on five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, what they want to have. And again, they look up at that mountain. Look up at that mountain and they’re like, oh my God, I gotta go all the way up there. And the next thing, oh, how much further I had to go? Don’t worry about the top. Worry about where you are. And it’s just, again, everything. I talk about this every year. Every year people set,
Yeah, we got New Year’s resolutions. New Year’s resolutions. Yep. January, February, March. Gotta get myself in shape. I gotta start working out. I gotta start getting myself in shape. Gyms are packed.
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Gyms are packed. And then, you know, come what? Month, two months. you know, they’re frustrated. It’s taking too much time. They see the people that are in shape and I’ll never be like that. Don’t focus on that. Just focus on yourself and being a little bit better every single day. That’s all you need to do.
And I’m here to tell you people, it’ll get you there. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. That’s all. You can throw your self -help books, this other crap that Oprah’s trying to shove down your throat, everything. You just compound life. Compound life. Try to do a little bit better in everything that you do every single day and you’ll get there. Watchdog on wallstreet .com.
