I remember when I was little girl in elementary school, and my brother and I used to accompany my mom to the bank. I was probably 7 or 8.
My mom gave my brother and I bank accounts (with a small amount of money) to teach us a bit about money (and to keep us occupied)
Back then, interest rates were high, and we had bank books (do you remember those?). So we would get the bank books updated each time. We could see how much our balance grew.
And, that is when I learned about the concept of compound interest. It’s like passive income. It grows for you while you live your life.
I loved the idea that my income could keep growing on its own. I loved to calculate how things would look in the future and that the secret was really about saving, patience and time.
Later, when I grew up, I knew the more I could make, the more I could save. And, the more I could save, the more I could invest.
And, as long as I didn’t need the money soon, everything would be fine in the long run.
Fast forward to where I am today. I now make a living by running my blog. Yes, it’s true. I make money from my blog, and it’s how I support myself.
At first, when I started my blog and tried to monetize it, it was slow as molasses. Super duper slow – almost like watching paint dry. And, I really needed money, too so it was really frustrating.
I wrote blog post after blog post. I SEO’d them and learned how to do pinterest. I learned a lot. And, I blogged a lot. I felt like I made very little progress. Yes, I made some money – maybe $1,500-$2,000/month – not enough to live on and not enough to justify the time I had spent on it. It was frustrating.
But, finally by around month 11-12, things started to grow. From there, things started to take off and I was increasing my month revenue by around $1,000/month. That’s when I realized that this felt like compound interest.
All the work I had done previously was showing in the results and it kept growing.
And, as I blogged more, I was building the base and allowing it to compound more.
Well until there was a market setback. (i.e. a Google update). But sure enough the market rectified itself a couple of months later, and I continued to grow.
Then, I ventured into uncharted waters and created my first ebook. That was a nice inflection point, so I did a second one 2 months later. That’s when things really started to soar.
Over the last few months, I keep doing additional small projects to fill in all the holes (e.g. email, landing pages). And, as I check these off my “to do” list, these tweaks propel me further ahead.
It’s gradual of course, but it feels good as I’m improving and moving in the right direction. It feels like compound interest.
As I make strides, the base grows. It compounds and builds on itself.
I keep learning and moving out of my comfort zone. As a result, little by little, this puppy is growing. And, there is synergy among the parts. I’m making progress, and it feel great! Just like compound interest does.