Play Long-Term Games with Long-Term People
Play Long-Term Games with Long-Term People
You said, “All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.” How does one know if they’re earning compound interest?
Compound interest is a very powerful concept. Compound interest applies to more than just compounding capital. Compounding capital is just the beginning.
Compounding in business relationships is very important. Look at some of the top roles in society, like why someone is a CEO of a public company or managing billions of dollars. It’s because people trust them. They are trusted because the relationships they’ve built and the work they’ve done has compounded. They’ve stuck with the business and shown themselves (in a visible and accountable way) to be high integrity people.
Compound interest also happens in your reputation. If you have a sterling reputation and you keep building it for decades upon decades, people will notice. Your reputation will literally end up being thousands or tens of thousands of times more valuable than somebody else who was very talented but is not keeping the compound interest in reputation going.
This is also true when you’re working with individual people. If you’ve worked with somebody for five or ten years and you still enjoy working with them, obviously you trust them, and the little foibles are gone. All the normal negotiations in business relationships can work very simply because you trust each other—you know it will work out.
For example, there’s another Angel in Silicon Valley named Elad Gil who I like to do deals with.
I love working with Elad because I know when the deal is being done, he will bend over backward to give me extra. He will always round off in my favor if there’s an extra dollar being delivered here or there. If there’s some cost to pay, he will pay it out of his own pocket, and he won’t even mention it to me. Because he goes so far out of his way to treat me so well, I send him every deal I have—I try to include him in everything. Then, I go out of my way to try and pay for him. Compounding in those relationships is very valuable. [10]
Intentions don’t matter. Actions do. That’s why being ethical is hard.
When you find the right thing to do, when you find the right people to work with, invest deeply. Sticking with it for decades is really how you make the big returns in your relationships and in your money. So, compound interest is very important. [10]
99% of effort is wasted.
Obviously, nothing is ever completely wasted because it’s all a learning moment. You can learn from anything. But for example, when you go back to school, 99 percent of the term papers you did, books you read, exercises you did, things you learned, they don’t really apply. You might have read geography and history you never reuse. You might have studied a language you don’t speak anymore. You might have studied a branch of mathematics you completely forgot.
Of course, these are learning experiences. You did learn. You learned the value of hard work; you might have learned something that went deep into your psyche and became a piece of what you’re doing now. But at least when it comes to the goal-oriented life, only about 1 percent of the efforts you made paid off.
Another example is all the people you dated until you met your husband or wife. It was wasted time in the goal sense. Not wasted in the exponential sense, not wasted in the learning sense, but definitely wasted in the goal sense.
The reason I say this is not to make some glib comment about how 99 percent of your life is wasted and only 1 percent is useful. I say this because you should be very thoughtful and realize in most things (relationships, work, even in learning) what you’re trying to do is find the thing you can go all-in on to earn compound interest.
When you’re dating, the instant you know this relationship is not going to be the one that leads to marriage, you should probably move on. When you’re studying something, like a geography or history class, and you realize you are never going to use the information, drop the class. It’s a waste of time. It’s a waste of your brain energy.
I’m not saying don’t do the 99 percent, because it’s very hard to identify what the 1 percent is. What I’m saying is: when you find the 1 percent of your discipline which will not be wasted, which you’ll be able to invest in for the rest of your life and has meaning to you—go all-in and forget about the rest. [10]
与长期主义者玩长期游戏
你说过：“人生中的所有回报，无论是财富、关系，还是知识，都是来自于复利。“那么一个人如何知道自己是否在获得复利呢？
复利是一个非常强大的概念。复利不仅适用于资本的增长。资本的复利只是一个开始。
在商业关系中的复利也非常重要。看看社会上一些顶尖的职位，比如为什么有人能成为一家上市公司的CEO，或者管理数十亿美元的资金。这是因为人们信任他们。人们信任他们，是因为他们建立的关系和他们所做的工作得到了复利增长。他们坚持在商业中以一种可见和负责的方式展示自己是高诚信的人。
复利也体现在你的声誉上。如果你有着无可挑剔的声誉，并且你在几十年中不断建立它，人们会注意到。你的声誉最终会比那些同样有才能但没有在声誉上持续投入的人，价值高出成千上万倍。
这也适用于你和个别人的合作。如果你和某个人合作了五年或十年，并且依然享受与他们共事的过程，显然你信任他们，那些小小的缺陷也消失了。在商业关系中，所有的正常谈判都可以变得非常简单，因为你们彼此信任——你知道最终会顺利解决。
例如，硅谷有一位名叫Elad Gil的天使投资人，我非常喜欢和他一起做交易。
我喜欢和Elad合作，因为我知道在交易过程中，他会不遗余力地为我提供额外的好处。如果有额外的一美元要分，他总是会偏向我。如果有需要支付的费用，他会从自己的口袋里付出，甚至都不会跟我提起。因为他这样竭尽全力地对我好，我也会把我能做的每个交易都介绍给他，尽量把他包括在内。然后我也会不遗余力地为他付出。在这样的关系中，复利是非常有价值的。[10]
动机不重要，行动才重要。这就是为什么保持道德很难。
当你找到正确的事情去做，找到合适的人合作时，深度投资吧。坚持几十年，这才是你在关系和金钱上获得大回报的方式。所以，复利非常重要。[10]
99%的努力都是浪费的。
显然，事情从来不会完全浪费，因为它们都是学习的机会。你可以从任何事情中学到东西。但举个例子，当你回顾你的学业时，99%的学期论文、阅读的书籍、做的练习、学到的东西，实际上并没有真正派上用场。你可能学了地理和历史，但从未再使用这些知识。你可能学过一种语言，但现在已经不再说它。你可能学习过某个数学分支，但早已忘记。
当然，这些都是学习的经验。你确实学到了东西。你学会了努力工作的价值，也许学到了什么深深植入了你的内心，成为了你现在做的事情的一部分。但至少在目标导向的人生中，只有约1%的努力真正带来了回报。
另一个例子是你在遇到你的丈夫或妻子之前约会的所有人。从目标的角度来看，那些时间是浪费的。在指数增长的意义上并不是浪费，从学习的意义上也不是浪费，但在目标的意义上确实是浪费的。
我这样说并不是为了轻描淡写地说你99%的生活是浪费的，只有1%是有用的。我之所以这么说，是希望你能认真思考，并意识到在大多数事情中（无论是关系、工作，甚至是学习）你真正想要做的，是找到你可以全心投入、获得复利的事情。
在约会时，一旦你知道这段关系不会通向婚姻，你大概应该结束它。当你在学习某些东西，比如地理或历史课时，意识到你永远不会使用这些信息，那么就放弃这门课吧。这是在浪费时间，是在浪费你的脑力。
我不是说不要做那99%的事情，因为很难辨认出哪1%是有意义的。我的意思是，当你找到那1%不会被浪费的东西时，你可以为之投资终生，并且它对你有意义——那么就全力以赴，忘掉其他的。[10]