As we previously mentioned, Einstein described the compounding effect as the most beautiful mathematical discovery, but I think that we human beings underestimate the power of compounding. And the main cause of that may be that we cannot look through the long-term perspective and we overestimate the short-term consequences. The compounding power of the rapid execution and iterated learning feedback loop can do wonders to our growth, and commitment to this, over the course of career, is, what Sam described, the closest thing you can get to guaranteed success.
Compounding is magic. Look for it everywhere. Exponential curves are the key to wealth generation. A medium-sized business that grows 50% in value every year becomes huge in a very short amount of time. Few businesses in the world have true network effects and extreme scalability. But with technology, more and more will. It’s worth a lot of effort to find them and create them. You also want to be an exponential curve yourself—you should aim for your life to follow an ever-increasing up-and-to-the-right trajectory. It’s important to move towards a career that has a compounding effect—most careers progress fairly linearly. You don't want to be in a career where people who have been doing it for two years can be as effective as people who have been doing it for twenty—your rate of learning should always be high. As your career progresses, each unit of work you do should generate more and more results. There are many ways to get this leverage, such as capital, technology, brand, network effects, and managing people. It’s useful to focus on adding another zero to whatever you define as your success metric—money, status, impact on the world, or whatever. I am willing to take as much time as needed between projects to find my next thing. But I always want it to be a project that, if successful, will make the rest of my career look like a footnote. Most people get bogged down in linear opportunities. Be willing to let small opportunities go to focus on potential step changes.