This is why money goes hand in hand with speed.

IN THIS ISSUE 

10 min read

• Money goes hand in hand with speed—this is a saying that is commonly refuted. Isn’t it better to plan it out? Maybe conduct deep research before throwing yourself into the uncertainties of business? In today’s newsletter, I will explain exactly how this is true, and what you can apply to your daily life.

  • ⌚ Time kills everything

  • ⏩ Speed; the common constant

  • 📝 You’ve got to do 2 things faster

TIME KILLS EVERYTHING

Let’s talk about a universal truth, which is the fact that time kills everything.

Everything, therefore, is in a state of constant decay. The only thing that changes is the rate of that decay. Everything is falling apart - you, my chair, your car, and everything in between. The only thing that can be modified is how quickly these things are each falling apart.

And this is where things get interesting because we have the ability to slow and even reverse that decline, which we do by adding momentum into a system.

What do I mean by “adding momentum” into a system? Well, to grasp this, let’s dive into Newton’s first law of motion: An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion.

This is important to understand because in the beginning, when you're trying to make money, you're pretty much at rest; you have no traction, no forward momentum, and no inertia on your side.

So, getting the ball rolling is going to be incredibly difficult, but it's the most important first battle you have to win. You have to input enough energy into the system to get things into motion.

SPEED, THE COMMON CONSTANT

What does Inertia have to do with money? Well, to understand this better, let’s review what kinetic energy is. Kinetic energy is the result of an object in motion (recall inertia). While not getting too deep into the science of things, the formula for kinetic energy has a variable with high importance: velocity (In other words, speed).

The speed at which we input energy into a system is practically everything. It's the most important part.

Ok so, you input enough energy to start your path of low inertia, and you understand that speed of that input can allow you to move quicker. But what does this have to do with money?

Introducing the money-making formula, which is simply volume times leverage equals money.

Now, volume is a combination of two factors: how long you do it and how many times you do it. And if we take that second part to its natural conclusion, the faster that we can do a thing, then the more times we can do it. So, you start to notice how speed just keeps popping up in all of our equations. It's truly a universal constant.

However, notice how we have 2 variables: speed and duration. But, to derive a concrete conclusion, Naval Ravikant (twitter @naval) says it best:

He frequents this type of “iterated game”, a game which is repeated numerous times. And a business is no less, just tens, hundreds, even thousands of attempts just to get the winning one.

So, increasing the speed at which we iterate allows us to cycle through the formula more times, thus increasing the likelihood of actually succeeding.

Think of it like this: If you were playing a game of baseball and you could take an infinite number of swings, then it would simply be a matter of time and repetition until you hit a home run.

Now, even better, if we could cut the amount of time between repetitions by half, then we'd effectively double the number of home runs you could potentially hit in the same period of time. So, again and again, we come back to this foundational principle that speed is a critical variable of success.

Let’s address something: going in blindly.

In almost all scenarios, especially when it comes to making money, whoever learns fastest wins. And it's only in the doing that you learn things like what works and what doesn't, what do customers actually want, how do you actually build that website or deliver that product—we apply theoretical knowledge in the real world.

There's a whole world of things that you don't know until you try to do the thing, which is why Facebook's motto for so long was "move fast and break things." The knowledge acquired in the process of doing is far more valuable than whatever thing you just broke.

YOU’VE GOT TO DO 2 THINGS FASTER

So, when it comes to making money, there are two things in particular that you've got to do faster. One, you've got to increase your speed of decision-making, and two, you've got to increase your speed of execution.

So, first, let's talk about increasing how to make decisions faster. Lao Tzu famously said:

And to me, that first step is not physical; it's mental. It's a decision. It's a decision to move forward, to take action, or to stand still and do nothing. Regardless of which, it does all start with a decision.

But in terms of speed, there are really just two questions you've got to answer. First, how much does this decision actually matter? And second, to what degree is this decision reversible?

• Not Reversable, Not Important → Make these quickly

  • For instance, deciding what to eat for lunch

• Reversible, Not very important → Just make the decision and get on with your life.

  • An example would be figuring out what type of socks to buy.

• Things that are harder to reverse

  • Use a tool like a decision journal.

    • It’s a great way to clear in your mind about what you intend to do before starting.

Now, in my experience, speed of execution results from focus and clarity of vision. If you can clearly see where you're going and you've crafted a good enough plan for getting there, then all that remains is to execute.

But the reality is that the ability to execute, it's a skill. So, the more you execute, the better you get at executing.

So, if I have one piece of advice, it's just do more. Seriously, however you've decided to make money, just do more of it. Eventually, you'll get good at it, at which point you can start focusing on doing less better. But not until you've established a certain baseline ability through sheer volume of repetition.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Time Kills Everything; everything is in a state of decay

  • Because of this, we need to increase our speed of input

• Increasing the speed at which we iterate allows us to cycle through the “success formula” more times, thus increasing the likelihood of actually succeeding.

• When it comes to making money:

  • Increase your speed of decision-making

    • Look at the importance and reversibility of each decision

  • Increase your speed of execution.

    • Execute more; establish the ability through sheer volume

THOUGHTS ON TODAY’S ISSUE?