Let your efforts compound
The difference between a serious person, one who has on average made good decisions, doesn’t show at 22. You can start to see it quite clearly at 29.
I often think to myself, I have wasted my life.
But that’s an unhelpful generalisation that leaves me stuck in a negative loop of faux self-awareness, with no actual action carried out.
What I really mean is I have little to show for compounding.
Maladaptive responses to anxiety and depression have eaten my time. My truly deep work, my truly meaningful connections have only been sustained in short bursts. Starts and stops.
Every ghosting or major depressive episode cuts off a road that was leading somewhere, so that when you come to, you are starting from scratch. The connection is frayed. Those who choose to move forward with you do so tentatively. Understandably.
This is expensive.
“The first rule of compounding is never to interrupt it unnecessarily.” - Charlie Munger
A common excuse for me, in the context of careers, is that I have a non-linear career. I have proof this isn’t true in the form of a friend. Around the same age. Similar career paths. Wildly different outcomes. Instead of closed, disconnected loops, his pivots have been bridges so that over time, ascension becomes possible.
Luckily, whenever you wake up is your morning.
Good morning.
Compounding moving forward
Prevent time sinks: Understanding the anxiety and depression triggers, rewiring the brain for non-maladaptive responses.
Don’t leave often: Destination syndrome, catastrophising the current situation, assuming the next will be perfect. Yet, wherever you go, there you are. Most of my exits have been unnecessary or premature.
Leave well: When you must, leave bridges, not closed loops.
So that at 40, when I suspect the difference between those who compound and those who do not will be even more stark, I fall into the former.
I end this by saying to myself: I let go of regret over the wasted decade. I reframe it not as waste but as education. And I focus on compounding, starting now.