The first little bit of money I made allowed me to quit my full-time job to go all-in on an asymmetric opportunity under my own name.

I am not “financially free” forever. But, I’ve won the privilege to take on accountability and start building leverage in my industry doing something I’m very excited about. If I can get another small win, I can keep this party going.

And that’s how wealth creation works.

One small win opens up more doors for you to pursue the next small win.

Just like Warren Buffett’s aptly name biography, The Snowball, the wins compound on each other until you have so much momentum - so many ways to make money - you don’t have enough time to pursue them all.

So forget about “getting rich quick.” This path requires extreme patience, broken by periods of extreme action.

If you can start stacking some small wins together, the big wins will take care of themselves.

Wealth Builds Slowly With A Series Of Good Bets.

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger spend much of their day sitting, reading, and thinking. They do not clutter their minds with “busy work.”

Because they have so much leverage - money and labor - they only need to make one or two great decisions a year to grow or sustain their business, Berkshire Hathaway.

To an outsider, it looks like they move verrry sloooowly.

In fact, young entrepreneurs and investors often ask Buffett and Munger how they can become like them - very rich - only faster. Here is Munger’s response:

“We get these questions a lot from the enterprising young. It’s a very intelligent question: You look at some old guy who’s rich and you ask, 'How can I become like you, except faster?'

Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day – if you live long enough – most people get what they deserve.”

There is no shortcut. Wealth creation is a series of good bets, one after another, for decades. And the more leverage you have, the larger the impact of your decisions, and the more important it is to make good ones.

Speed doesn’t win. Consistency and discipline do.

Wealth Creation Requires Extreme Patience, Interrupted By Bursts of Extreme Action.

Munger and Buffett spend an inordinate amount of time thinking and reading. But, when they spot an opportunity, they act with extreme aggression.

That’s the ideal temperament for someone looking to build wealth. Here’s Munger again:

“I think the record shows the advantage of a peculiar mindset - not seeking action for its own sake, but instead combining extreme patience with extreme decisiveness… Patience combined with opportunity is a great thing to have. My grandfather taught me that opportunity is infrequent and one has to be ready when it strikes. That’s what Berkshire is… Patience followed by pretty aggressive conduct when the time comes."

This is what I’m trying to embody in my own career. I waited years working a job I knew I would one day leave as I looked for the right opportunity to come along. Years of reading, learning, and sharpening my toolset.

And then suddenly, an old bet paid off. And a new opportunity in my circle of competence arrived. So, I leaped from the comfort of my 9-5 into a far less certain future with far more upside.

One small win allowed me to pursue the chance for another.

Building Wealth Is Stacking One Chip On Top Of Another.

I haven’t “won” the game. This wasn’t a $100M startup exit. Far from it. But, I was able to stack a chip onto the pile and play another hand with even more upside.

And Naval Ravikant tells us that is usually how wealth is built. One chip at a time, not all at once. Here’s Naval talking about this on his blog, How To Get Rich: Every Episode:

“My personal wealth has not been generated by one big year. It stacks up little bit, chips at a time. More options, more businesses, more investments, more things that I can do…It’s going to be a long lifetime of learning, of reading, of creating that’s going to compound.”

You have to compound small wins. And each win opens up more opportunities to make money and to do it in ways you enjoy.

That’s been the biggest change for me. Since I quit my job, I’m actually excited to get up in the morning and get to work. The freedom of time is great, but it’s the freedom to create meaning on my own terms that really matters.

There’s Always Someone Getting Rich Faster Than You.

Social media makes it very easy to feel envious of people who seem to be making more money than you are. Across my timeline, it feels like everyone is two or three steps ahead.

And maybe they are. But the truth is there will always be someone getting wealthy quicker than you! So it’s best not to worry about it!

Here’s Charlie Munger on facing this reality:

“Someone will always be getting richer faster than you. This is not a tragedy… The idea of caring that someone is making money faster than you are is one of the deadly sins. Envy is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at. There’s a lot of pain and no fun. Why would you want to get on that trolley?”

I’ve worked hard to limit my feelings of jealousy (helped enormously by this simple trick from Naval). As Munger says, it’s such an unproductive, miserable feeling with absolutely no upside that it’s best to get over it as quickly as you can.

Remember that your timeline is right for you. You are exactly where you’re meant to be.

And patience is the ultimate virtue in this game because compound interest pays out the most at the END of the compounding period. Fortunes aren’t built in a day.

So, keep stacking your chips. Look for asymmetric opportunities with persistent patience. And when you come across something right in your wheelhouse, act with extreme aggression.

Because the gap between wealthy and “want to be wealthy” comes down to one single thing: Action.

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ARTICLE SOURCES

Charlie Munger’s quotes can be found here.

Naval Ravikant’s quote is from his podcast: How To Get Rich: Every Episode