Stay the Course for Compound Growth

By now, we’re all familiar with exponential growth. Exponential growth is how COVID grew, how Bitcoin grew, how Facebook grew, how Harry Potter grew. No one knew what they were for a long time, then suddenly they were everywhere. It turns out that the chart you see above is a fundamental rule of nature. Wherever there’s growth, there’s exponential growth. Scientific discovery follows this curve. So does technological advancement. So does global wealth.

And so does your career, if you stick it out long enough.

The trick is keeping your eye on the prize, the peak of the chart, up and to the right, where the hockey stick meets the heavens. As Shakespeare said, “it is the star to every wandering bark.” The North Star, that is, by which you can trace a path to wherever you seek to go—so long as you keep your endpoint constant. If you wake up every day with a new goal in mind, you’ll never reach any of them.

So the trick is two-fold. First, know exactly what you want out of your author career, and keep that North Star constant. Second, devote yourself entirely to the pursuit. Don’t waste energy on weighing the pros and cons of giving up. After all, if you give up on this mountain, you’ll only have to replace it with another. One you know nothing about. So just sit down and do the work. Write the words. Market your books. Master every skill of your chosen profession. Complete your tasks with quality and speed. And above all, never stop!

It may seem pointless today, or this month, or this year, but keep at it, and someday soon you’ll see the stars.