And here is my ONE regret…

Not building ONE THING early enough in the right market.

You see, I am a very intelligent person. I know I am (or at least I like to think I am) — so because of this; I am extremely good at spotting patterns and making inferences, knowing why things happen (even when others don't see it) and I am superb at having original thoughts.

Plus I have done this long enough to know that if you are a very ambitious person with big goals — you will most likely regret it too in the end if you make the mistakes I did.

And it won't be your fault. We are fighting for survival, and when you are starting from scratch, with no startup capital and very little support, all you'd care about will be THE MONEY.

No matter how small…no matter how it comes.

But in the end, here is what you would wish you had done — building ONE THING.

You see, there are only two ways people like us can build long-lasting wealth, and by people like us; I mean people who were not born into riches.

The First Way

By media (Blog + recurring revenue from a Newsletter, a membership site, or a site or brand that sells subscriptions to a physical product).

The Second Way

By code (software)

Everything you do online should be to push one of these two categories.

Every success you get is constrained by time, which means — given enough time EVERYTHING will grow: exponentially.

This means; that if you follow the model everyone is doing right now: make posts, sell courses, make posts, sell courses — one-off payments.

You will make money, no doubt — but COMPOUND EFFECT will not be on your side. At least not on the right things.

Yes, you will experience the compound effect that gets you a few thousand followers. You might even mistake this for success. People will respect you, and hang on to your words. It's good for your ego, but in the long run, it's worth very little.

And heck, getting a compound effect in your follower list might even boost your income, bringing in a couple of million in sales here and there. But my advice would be for you to take that income and put it into something solid.

Money is not the goal; wealth is. And wealth comes from ownership.

Own media or code — focus on this every day for the next five years, and you'll thank me in the end.

The cheat is the COMPOUND EFFECT.

I've met plenty of truly wealthy people, and I can tell you, they are not necessarily smarter than you. Many are downright clueless — but they stick with one thing for 10 years, sometimes even 20.

Their only secret is the compound effect. When you do something long enough, the results grow exponentially.

This brings me to the next point…

If you're going to dedicate yourself to something for that long, it better be worthwhile, right? It needs to hold long-term value, in a market where people are willing and able to pay for what you offer.

The market you choose to play in is the next most important decision after focusing on one thing.

Every lasting business sells ONE thing — or multiple things — to the same set of people, over and over again. They optimize to sell repeatedly to one person.

So, pick a market where people have a consistent need for what you offer. That's how you know you have an idea with compound effect potential.

Amazon created Prime to keep people shopping consistently.

Apple built the App Store.

Tesla built their software ecosystem.

These businesses design consistency into their system for a reason — because that's the ONLY way what you're building will be worthwhile.

What's your take on the compound effect? How are you planning to apply it in your journey? Share your thoughts below!