Riding the Wave: Compound Interest on Time Investment
May 12th, 2008
Image by goodsurfer2008
I just read some interesting thoughts on time from a conversation between Tim Ferris and David Kutoff. David puts forth that by using the principles in Mr. Ferris’ book you can cut the time you spend working currently and do additional things, therefore increasing the value of your time:
Money and currency — accumulated excess money — represent one part of your capacity to transact in the marketplace, and can be exchanged for help from others in the form of products or services, including “things” like consumables, depreciable and appreciable assets. Similarly every action you take, whether it be transaction-related or not, requires the expenditure of some amount of time, which is roughly fixed for all of us (say 10,000 working days between the ages of 22 and 62).
This concept of “Compound Time” applies directly to Personal Branding. To start up a brand requires tons of time, energy, and money. Nike didn’t start day one with everyone knowing their logo, and Apple wasn’t always associated with the sleek, uber-hip technology they are today. The good news is that the stronger you build your brand, the easier it will get. Nike and Apple are now riding the tidal wave of their brand investment.
(CC) Brian Solis, briansolis.com, bub.blicio.us.
As an example, Gary Vaynerchuk has been putting in quite the time investment with remarkable results. Since launching Wine Library TV in early 2006, he’s garnered a large and faithful following online, including more than 60,000 viewers of the show, almost 5000 friends on Facebook, more than 8000 Twitter followers, and loads of subscribers to his blog.
Once a brand is established it becomes much easier to act in accordance with it and build upon it. But it takes that initial investment. If you skimp on your brand now, it will be shaky later. So make every interaction count.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I think everyone is striving for that point where you really don’t have to do any more work. You really can just ride the wave once you are there - it also comes in quite in the middle. I could ride my wave right now, but I want the wave to be bigger, so I can ride it longer.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Excellent point Patrick. It will never be work free, but it can get easier, effectively giving you more return for your effort. That’s the key I guess, never getting lazy and riding your wave before it’s at its peak.