Optimizing Time: 5 Enduring Principles🕛
Happy Friday Jr.,👋
It’s been a while since I’ve hit publish, which has been weird for me. Welcoming my son into this world, building Athlos, and a bit of writer’s block has kept me from producing much content. Traditionally, I write about everything money (i.e. Omni…Dollar). I love to try to simplify complex topics and provide pragmatic, with a dash of weird, views of early-stage companies and broad financial topics. While this piece has a heavy shot of life baked in, all of the principles outlined are things that would have led me to be a much better steward of my time, energy, and as a result…capital.
Today, I turn 40. It’s been a wild ride thus far. I spent the majority of my life living with my dad permanently confined to a wheelchair, said bye to my baby before I said hi, watched two of my best friends (one a cousin) succumb to drugs before the age of 30, had other friends lose their minds due to mental illnesses, sat next to my Grandfather alone as he left this world, and am now 4 years in on a life-changing diagnosis that someone within my own nuclear family was dealt. Now that we got those out of the way, on to the good stuff.
In the past ~5 years alone, I’ve welcomed my two children into the world alongside my beautiful wife, stepped away from the business that I co-founded for 10 years, started a new business closer to one of my life-long passions, and committed to a lifestyle change that has completely altered the way that I interface with life. Dial it back further, and there are too many incredible experiences to list out.
As I approach this birthday milestone, I carved out some time to reflect and try to distill the top 5 principles that I’ve learned over the years. Things that I feel have withstood the test of time and that have had the most significant positive impact on my life.
Even though it’s not my typical financial-centric deep dive, I hope that you enjoy.
Let’s get to it!
Cheers,
Myles
Time
Time is a weird thing. At the current moment for us humans, it’s the most finite asset that we have on this planet. According to our current understanding of physics, our physical bodies have a clear beginning (conception or birth, depending on your own belief) and ending (death). When we are younger, time drags on. It feels like we’ll never be old enough to drive, make our own money, have our own house, build a family…it feels like we’ll never grow up. Then, all of a sudden…you wake up 30 years later and don’t know where time went. When you have kids, there’s a saying, “The days are long, but the years are fast.”. It could not be more true.
Time is quite literally relative (See Einstein’s Theory of Relativity).
To illustrate this idea numerically, consider this: 5 hours in the life of a 5-year-old represents a mere 0.00011407% of their total lifespan. If we apply the same percentage to a 40-year-old, it translates to 40 hours. Imagine enduring a "40-hour" road trip in a car. This is what we call time dilation. Time can appear to pass at different rates for observers in different states of motion.
Just as time appears to pass more slowly for objects in motion relative to an observer, the subjective experience of time can vary depending on the individual's stage of life. From the perspective of a 5-year-old, who has lived only a fraction of their total lifespan, time may seem to pass more slowly. In contrast, for a 40-year-old who has experienced a more significant portion of their life, time may appear to pass more quickly due to the relative scale of their experiences.
That latter point hits hard for me. Time has been absolutely flying by, which makes me appreciate and allocate my time much more stingily. Now that I have 40 years under my belt, it’s also caused me to reflect on what I’ve learned about time and what I’ve learned in that time.
Since I first learned about the time value of money and the power of compounding at IU, I’ve been fascinated by it. Before that, in a raw, 10-year-old kind of way, I understood that if you spent money, you’d no longer have it. Even at that age, I didn’t like not having money. However, it was during this key learning at IU that opened my eyes to how significant monetary wealth can be created via compounding.
This led me to the co-mingling of the time value of money, compounding, and habits, which brings us to our first principle…
Compounding Beyond Money
The power of compounding stretches well beyond money. Be mindful of your every second, and treat it with the utmost respect. Behaviors, good and bad, will be formed in these precious seconds, and eventually grow to be uncontrollable forces in your life.
I once received advice that being successful was really simple: “All you have to do is wake up every day and repetitively do things that you don’t want to do.”. While it was a bit of a facetious statement, it still resonated with me. After hearing this, I frequently pondered the factors that contributed to my achievements in life, and I concluded that this statement held considerable truth. Pushing boundaries required a repetitive motion of doing things that I simply didn’t like. It started at an early age with the unfortunate circumstances of my childhood, then with sports, then college where I hated my non-business courses, and eventually running a company.
As I went a few layers deeper, I triangulated a more meaningful discovery. It wasn’t just about repetitively doing things I didn’t like, it was about micro-investments of my time and energy (sacrifice), that continued to compound over time. As time progressed, these micro-investments grew into uncontrollable forces within my life. Some of these were bad behaviors, and others were good. The former were incredibly difficult to unwind. Think of this as debt accumulation. The latter became incredibly profitable. Think of these as cash-generating assets accumulating on your balance sheet.
As we grow older, everyone has a choice with these assets and liabilities:
Reinvest (assets)
Sell (assets)
Hold (assets or debt)
In this construct, I found a (somewhat) simple equation for success, which will not surprise you:
Assets (created via micro-investments of time & energy in positive behaviors) x (1 + Reinvestment Rate)^(Time)
- Liabilities (“ “ in destructive behaviors)
= Owner’s Equity (your individual net worth)
Taking it one step further, I realized that these repetitive, good behaviors typically consisted of more upfront energy and challenges, which became a mindful and intentional way of creating constructive…
Adversity is the Antidote of Inertia
You have to get uncomfortable in this World often to grow. The ability to find and embrace adversity before it organically finds you is a replicable mechanism for creating opportunity. At the corner of terrified and excited is truly an incredible place to be. Find it often and continue to get more comfortable with the uncomfortable.
I recently read a quote from the CEO of Nvidia, which at the time of this writing is the hottest tech company on the globe, where he bluntly discusses the benefits of adversity:
“Resilience matters in success...I don't know how to teach it to you except for, 'I hope suffering happens to you'. Greatness comes from character, & character is formed out of people who suffered. I wish upon you ample doses of pain & suffering.” -Jensen Huang
By the age of 9, I watched my Dad nearly die, eventually clawing his way back to life. That injury ultimately led to him being confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. It fundamentally changed who I am. My parents divorced not too long after, and both struggled in their new realities. I struggled, too. I was forced to grow up quickly.
Because of these circumstances, I had to involuntarily say “no” a lot in my life. I eventually went on to spend 5 summers at military school from ages 12-16. I had a lot of fun there, but I approached my days there (especially the early ones) as an opportunity, not an obligation. Because of the financial strain caused by my dad’s accident, I often looked at the world opportunistically, as this was the way that I was rewarded and saw as my path to survival.
The initial life-changing experience was a forced experience. However, not all adversity comes in this form. At Upper Hand, one of the core values that we hired and fired on was Grit. One day my wife asked me, “Would you not hire someone just because they haven’t had enough shitty hands dealt to them in life?”. It was a fair question. I thought a lot about that and tested different interview questions to try and find good leading indicators of having Grit, to no avail. It wasn’t until recently that I finally cracked the code on it.
Wildly successful people use adversity as an antidote to inertia. They constantly push the envelope, living in a world that was recently impossible. And as a result, they fail a lot more than the average person. These failures are hard. They result in heartbreak, imposter syndrome, sadness, anger, fear, and anxiety. As you build, fail, repeat…you either figure out how to healthily process these complex and difficult emotions, or your body eventually starts to fail on you. This physical breakdown is also intertwined with the debt accumulation discussed in the previous section.
Figure out how to balance the risk-taking with managing your accumulated debt, and you have a higher probability of being able to process these emotions, which is an exponential unlock for…
The Power Law of Creativity
The consistent cultivation of creativity as a disciplined practice unlocks the potential for exponential growth and impact. There is a beautiful asymmetry of creative returns that you must embrace, constantly challenging yourself to think in the realm of the unthinkable.
I was always average when it came to “book smarts”. I overthought tests, struggled with test anxiety, and had a hard time memorizing vast amounts of material. These traits don’t mesh well with one of the top finance programs in the world. I spent a lot of time with my head buried in finance & accounting books, over-leveraging the left side of my brain. As a result, I formed a habit of heavily rooting my decision-making process in logic and analytics. I became very good at seeing the world this way, and as time went on, people around me took notice. In any work environment, this was the type of work that I was responsible for, which I enjoyed. However, this created a perpetual cycle of left-brain activities for most of my adult life, ultimately neglecting the creative side of my brain.
It took me “clearing the table” and doing a hard internal reset to figure out how I could get back to consistent creative practice. I researched ways to enhance creativity and dove into the core of what allows the mind to be creative in the first place. I found interesting information about neural networks and neuroplasticities, but ultimately, the most profound thing: The impact of stress and emotional state on creativity.
Put simply, perpetual stress kills creativity. When our body is in a state of stress, our brain releases Cortisol, which can lead to short-term spikes in creativity and problem-solving. But, when pumping for an extended period, Cortisol will impair cognitive thinking, crushing creativity. In addition to Cortisol levels, stress also impacts dopamine and serotonin levels.
While starting and operating a technology business for 10 years, and also not paying down the debt that I referenced above, I learned the hard way that this is what happens in the brain throughout a state of chronic stress. This led me to the lifestyle changes that I mentioned in the opening and to…
Health is Wealth
Disclosure: I am not a health professional and this is not professional medical advice. If you are physically or mentally ill, please seek professional medical guidance.
Among all my investments, none has yielded greater returns than prioritizing my health. When viewing the mind & body as an investment, there are simple ways to manufacture returns. But like any investment, the closer you get to market equilibrium, the more difficult the returns become. Optimizing the ROI of your mind & body must become an incessant focus comprised of iterative, respectful experimentation.
Before we jump in on this topic, let’s clear something up. When I discuss health, I am not referencing looking “fit”. I am referencing a holistic approach to optimizing the performance of your mind & body. Over-indexing to improve the body can result in the mind faltering, and vice versa. I’ve found that taking a holistic approach to health yields significantly better returns from the investment of time and money. Below are a few categories that I think may help people more tactically implement change in their own lives:
The Simple Stuff: You are what you eat. I stick to foods that my body reacts well to. It’s taken years to figure this simple, yet complex concept out. But eventually, I learned. Big caveat here: I still drink alcohol and eat pizza with the best of them. No one is perfect. However, I try to limit putting bad things in my body as much as possible. I said simple…not hard!
Cheat Codes: The general rule of thumb here is to never fight the force of nature. Take your sunglasses off, wake up early, and get your eyes exposed to the sun. Get outside in nature and be mindful of your surroundings. Limit exposure to blue light before bed. Meditate. Reduce toxins around you (think cleaning & bathing supplies). Figuring out the cheat codes is an imperative investment.
The Hard Stuff: Regularly practicing meditation was one of the most difficult habits to form, but it absolutely changed my life. Getting into therapy was another one that was equally difficult with similar results. These are the types of things that I reference around getting returns beyond market equilibrium. Hard, but necessary.
Experimentation: Purchase a Whoop and watch your recovery incessantly. Experiment and journal your behaviors to see how you can optimize recovery. Currently, I am testing out mushroom extracts and the impacts that they have on my ability to focus during the day (difficult to measure), and my level of deep sleep (easy to measure). Experiment with different lifestyle choices and constantly optimize around actual health data.
Ultimately, when I’ve made my health a priority, I’ve significantly outperformed. Full stop. There is literally no better investment in this life than regularly making your mind & body a priority.
Peak performance results in your ability to consistently make the difficult decisions necessary to be constantly moving forward and never end up stuck in…
The Waiting Place is No Place to Stay
There is no worse place to be than in a state of stagnation. The incapacity to chart a course forward is a malady that has diverted numerous individuals from realizing their utmost potential. When you feel stuck, something is wrong. Decisive action is more important than being right.
Humans are wired to solve problems. This can be traced back to evolutionary pressures related to survival and adaptation to extreme circumstances during the Paleolithic Era (i.e. Stone Age). While we are built to quickly conduct complex problem-solving, it does not make this task simple. In the Power Law of Creativity section, I discussed how important the right side of the brain was.
Complex problem-solving, i.e. processing new information, triangulating problems, and solving said problems, requires the integration of multiple brain regions. It’s really hard. In today’s world, we are processing volumes of information that have never been experienced by humankind. This can lead to crippling indecisiveness, anxiety, and depression.
What I’ve learned is that most of the information out there is worthless. Be obsessed with the type of information that you allow your brain to spend time processing, and this will lead to a clearer mind, capable of making better decisions when you feel stuck. The same principle can and should be applied to the people that you surround yourself with. Give serious thought and reflection about the individuals that consistently drain your energy. If you decide that these are relationships that you want to invest in, create boundaries to avoid them burning you out and draining your ability to solve core problems in your life.
Whatever the circumstances and whatever energy you have in the tank to “unstuck” yourself, being decisive is key. The longer you sit in a state of the unknown, the harder it is to get out. Decisiveness > Being Right. Move!
Summary
Life is short. The items above are key learnings and principles that I feel can help folks live more fulfilling lives. There’s no guarantee that all, or any, will work for you. So this is a good time to leave you with one simple rule to live by: Know your Northstar and constantly reflect on where you are relative to that metric. For most of my life, my Northstar was to be happy. Being happy can be misleading, though. Sometimes, we feel happy due to Serotonin levels being elevated, which can be artificially manipulated based on experiences, drugs, activities, etc. I found it to be in my control, but too artificial and too volatile.
It was almost 4 years ago to the day that I was forced to re-evaluate the way I see the World. It was a cold, hard dose of reality that made me realize how precious time is, which ultimately led me to a new Northstar:
Optimize Time.
If you wake up every day focused on that Northstar, you’ll find peace & happiness more times than not. Optimizing Time isn’t about being militant with your time and always being productive. It’s about squeezing the most out of life. It’s about making the right investments that will constructively compound, it’s about seeking out adversity as a means to growth, it’s about constantly expressing the creativeness within you, it’s about investing in your health, and it’s about always moving forward.
In the end, we have but one life here on Earth. Act Accordingly.
Myles, this is amazing. Absolutely love your point about adversity being the antidote to inertia!