The most important thing I've changed my mind on recently is the value of hard work.
For a while I thought I could compensate for hard work with leverage and better decision making - which worked for a while - but the reality is that even with leverage you need to work hard.
For a while I thought I could compensate for hard work with leverage and better decision making - which worked for a while - but the reality is that even with leverage you need to work hard.
I optimized my life in a way where I was getting the same amount of work done in half the time through delegation and other forms of leverage. But then it hit me - more leverage means that there's more money left on the table for every hour you're not working.
This is the paradox / trade off between hard work and decision making:
Superior decision making can outperform 100s of hours of hard work, but the better your decision making, the more money you're leaving on the table by not putting in the hours.
Superior decision making can outperform 100s of hours of hard work, but the better your decision making, the more money you're leaving on the table by not putting in the hours.
My current hypothesis is that decision making and hard work compound together. Leverage begets more leverage, and the more leverage you can generate through hard work and better decisions, the more leverage you can deploy across multiple domains in the form of capital and labor.
The practical implication is that I've gone from working 40 hours and reading 7 hours a week to working 70 hours and reading 12 hours a week.
All of this is possible because I'm single and childless, which brings me on to another important observation:
All of this is possible because I'm single and childless, which brings me on to another important observation:
Work life balance is complete nonsense if you're in your 20s. In the absence of a spouse and children, this is the only decade of your life where you can dedicate almost all of your time to creating wealth and leverage.
Sure, your decision making improves with time, but you have fewer hours to translate that into wealth as time goes by.
By the time you hit your 30s, you want to have enough leverage in the bag to compensate for the loss of hours that come with a family.
By the time you hit your 30s, you want to have enough leverage in the bag to compensate for the loss of hours that come with a family.
Most wealthy people in their 30s and 40s with good work life balance are just folks who are reaping the rewards of the time and effort they invested in their 20s.
If I could boil it down to a simple formula:
wealth = leverage x decision making x (time + effort)
wealth = leverage x decision making x (time + effort)
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