The Business of Life
Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it
I do love simplifications. So life in a way a simple.
Every morning you wake up and go to work, you are making a transaction. You are trading your time, your one non-renewable asset.
And you are getting one of two things in return: you either learn, or you earn.
If you are doing both, you are winning. If you are doing only one, you had better be sure the payoff is massive. If you are doing neither, you are a fool. You are just getting older.
People get emotional about this. They talk about passion, purpose, and the worst word of all: "fulfillment." They imagine it's some mystical state of grace. It's not. It's an equation, simple:
Fulfilment = Resources / Desires
Your resources are everything you have: money in the bank, skills in your head, the strength of your network, the power of your name. Your desires are everything you want: the car, the house, the freedom, the respect, the family.
You want to be "fulfilled"? You have two choices. You can play with the denominator or the numerator.
Some will tell you to shrink your desires. Meditate. Be a monk. Want less. This is the philosophy of surrender. It’s a cope for people who are afraid to compete. You don't win a race by deciding you don't want the prize. This is a loser's mentality.
The only real path is to attack the numerator. Radically increase your resources.
This is where you must think like an investor, not an employee. Your life is your business. Your career is its primary product. You must manage it across three-time horizons: Today, Tomorrow, and The Future.
Today is your Cash Flow. This is your salary, your current happiness, the friends you see this weekend. It’s important. It keeps the lights on. Many people get trapped here. They optimise for a comfortable Today, trading everything for a steady paycheque in a job where they learn nothing new. Why learn nothing new? Cause it’s very painful. If you don’t fell the pain → you are learning speed is not fast enough. This is the most dangerous trap in modern life.
Tomorrow is your Pipeline. This is your optionality. The job you have today—does it open doors or close them? A high-paying job as a manager of a floppy disk factory in 1995 felt great "Today." But it was a dead end. Tomorrow was a brick wall.
You have to ask the brutal question: does this move increase my options or decrease them? The job in Antarctica for a mountain of cash might seem like a good deal. But if you're the only skilled person on the continent, your next move is where, exactly? You might have money, but you have no pipeline. You have become a local king on a tiny, frozen island. Unless that money is "fuck you" money—enough to fund your next company, your next life—it's a bad deal. You've traded your pipeline for cash flow.
The Future is your Equity. This is the big one. This is what separates the players from the spectators. In 20 years, will your profession even exist? Will everything you know be done by a cheap AI? Are you learning to be the world's best blacksmith in the year 1910?
Your skills are your personal equity. A salary is renting out your time. Equity is owning a piece of the machine. The only way to survive the future is to build skills that have leverage. Skills where you can build things, sell things, or manage complex systems.
So, the strategy is simple.
Assess your current deal. Are you learning or earning? If the answer is "not much of either," you are burning your life. Do you have a plan?
When making a choice, optimise for Tomorrow, not just Today. Ask yourself: "Will this give me more, better choices in five years?" A lower-paying job at a company on a rocket ship trajectory is a better deal than a high-paying job at a company that is slowly dying. One builds your pipeline; the other cashes it out.
Invest in your Future. Aggressively learn the skills that technology cannot easily replace. Your career isn't a job; it's a portfolio of skills. You are the fund manager. Don't invest in dying assets.
Stop thinking like an employee who hopes for a raise.
Start thinking like a founder who is building an empire.
Your life is your business.
Run it like one.