Shane Parrish

And I remember just thinking in that moment,

I never want to be in this situation where I have to choose between two necessary things that I have to fix and I have no money.

And at this point, I never lacked a meal, but I didn't have a lot of extras.

And it changed how I think about money from that moment on.

I was like, I need to become independent.

And for me, independence meant I don't need a paycheck in order to fix the roof or fix the car.

How do you think about money and independence?

Isidore Sharpe, the founder of Four Seasons, has this excellent quote, which is, excellence is the capacity to take pain.

And when we think of that, our minds just instinctively go to physical pain, but we don't think of psychological pain.

We don't think of financial ups and downs and being able to just survive because you can't compound if you don't survive.

And then the other thing about compounding I think people misunderstand is that

All the advantages come at the end and not at the beginning.

They're very slow at the beginning, but it's that last double that makes a huge difference.

How do you deal with that when you have $1,000?

That's your baseline.

This is the most I've ever had.

But now all of a sudden, that's my contrast.

That's the point of which that's the reference point for how I think about all future bank account balances.

But it's much easier said than done.

You're in meetings all day.