Introduction: The Illusion of Money and Nature’s Law
When you collect data from nature or statistics from societal phenomena and observe the first digits, a fascinating pattern emerges. Data starting with the number ‘1’ accounts for about 30% of the total, while data starting with ‘9’ accounts for merely 4.6%. This is known as Benford’s Law.
All matter and data in nature grow through multiplication (exponential/compound growth) rather than addition, adhering strictly to this law. In fact, accounting audits and tax investigations utilize Benford’s Law as a core mechanism to detect falsified records and fraudulent accounting. Artificial numbers created by humans violate nature’s law of multiplication and display a uniform distribution instead.
Here, I had a profound question well up within me: Why doesn’t “money (capital)”—which supposedly represents physical matter in nature—fully follow this Benford’s Law? The reason is clear: money is entangled with human desire, intervention, and control. And unfortunately, most ordinary people cannot be the agents of that intervention.
1. Absolute Equality: The Addition of Time
The one domain human intervention cannot distort, and the most perfectly equal subject of investment in the world, is ‘Time’.
No matter how wealthy a billionaire is, their year does not become 370 days. Nor does a year shrink to 350 days for someone struggling to afford a daily meal. Time cannot be manipulated or controlled by anyone; it is given to us daily in an honest, linear structure of addition (+).
The most perfectly efficient investment is to throw oneself into this ‘time that increases through equal addition’ and fuse oneself into nature’s world of compound growth.
- Exercise and Muscle: Honest hours of daily addition accumulate, causing muscle cells and the nervous system to develop exponentially.
- Reading and Knowledge: 30 minutes of daily addition accumulate, intertwining experiences and knowledge like neural synapses to build powerful intuition.
- Capital and Compound Interest: The compound interest effect—where interest accrues on interest over time—is the ultimate form of loading multiplication onto time.
2. The Illusion of ‘Growing Assets Through Investment’
Many fall into a critical illusion here. Approaching life with the mindset of “I will grow my assets through investment” is a fundamentally flawed approach where the cart is put before the horse.
The true answer is: “I will invest by giving it time.” Investing with time is not mere mindless endurance.
- The ‘Meaning’ of Time: Looking 20 to 30 years ahead and moving forward steadily through regular accumulation—that direction and accumulation itself is the meaning of time.
- The ‘Timing’ of Time: Letting go of impatience and quietly waiting until reaching the targeted destination—that is the timing of investing with time.
Consider the legends of the stock market: Warren Buffett, Jesse Livermore, and André Kostolany. People only look at the brilliant outcomes they achieved in their 30s. However, beneath that solid success lies 15 to 20 years or more of heavy, accumulated time endured since their teenage years. Even before their superior techniques, they were individuals who honestly added time to explode their assets through compound multiplication.
Thinking in reverse makes it clear: any temptation promising massive returns in a short period without giving it time is 100% false. It is an artificial intervention that defies the laws of nature.
3. What Matters Isn’t Just What Grows Exponentially
Nature’s law of compound growth has become unequal due to human intervention and control. Yet, the fact that everyone is born and eventually dies remains universally equal. Only time, which increases through addition, is truly equal. That is where our focus must lie.
“What are the odds of turning $100 into $1,000 by investing in stocks?”
➔ It is unpredictable. The probability depends on the market’s whims.
“What are the odds of creating over $1,000 worth of value by reading $100 worth of books and applying it to your life?”
➔ Without a doubt, anyone knows that reading will generate value far exceeding that amount.
The real power of reading lies in its ability to
“pull someone else’s lifetime of accumulated time into your own in just a few hours.”
I am neither a philosopher nor a mathematics or science expert. My writings prove the power of reading. Reading is the only way to shorten time. Then, what about exercise?
“Exercise elevates your body’s condensed energy and serves as an investment that extends the absolute time granted to your life.”
Examine the habits of successful individuals: Miracle Mornings, reading, working out, note-taking, and their frameworks of thought. Every single one of these revolves around time. Things exist that can make even time—the one thing equal to all—unequal.
Indeed. That is why “Capitalism is unequal.”
Conclusion: Understanding the ‘Meaning’ Brings Forth Your ‘Timing’
Look clearly at the ‘meaning’ of time. Meaning is newly defined in every moment of life, depending on where and how you pour your time.
Do not lose your mind solely to the material numbers of a bank balance. Invest your honest time in the most valuable targets—health, knowledge, and fundamental assets. Then, create the ‘timing’ you have desired most.
To those who accurately understand the meaning, time is not something to passively sit and wait for, but a massive opportunity actively approaching them. Only when you grasp the ‘meaning’ of time will your true ‘timing’ be completed.