Entrepreneurs Need to Build “Compounding Assets”

In theory, I have to write an article today, but I honestly don’t know what to write.

No grinding on the weekend. I’ll just write a little about things I’ve encountered recently.

01

I often get questions like this:

Whenever I see a question like this, honestly, I don’t even feel like answering...

I think to myself: instead of spending your time asking this everywhere, why not use it to write an article or shoot a video? Why not study why someone else’s account has grown?

The reason is simple. There is no standard answer to this question. Even if someone gives you an “answer,” you may not act on it. So it is an ineffective question: whether it gets answered or not, it will produce no certain feedback or return.

It is simply an emotional question. But emotion is of no use in entrepreneurship.

A rational entrepreneur pays no attention to things that bring no “positive return.”

What entrepreneurs need to do is find ways to turn uncertainty into certainty.

What offers relatively greater certainty is putting emotions aside, following through, and doing the things in front of you properly, one by one.

Every article you write, every video you make, and every time you express yourself—whatever the occasion—adds another brick to your personal brand and influence.

Right now, the impact may look small, the feedback limited, and the views low. But every action leaves a “digital asset” on the internet.

These assets can be discovered. They accumulate slowly and circulate quietly. Entrepreneurs should be doing things that continually create and accumulate assets.

02

Only recently have I begun to get a feel for “digital assets.” It’s quite a wonderful feeling.

My WeChat public account doesn’t have many followers or particularly high readership. It is still getting started. But every day there is a little advertising revenue, and a WeChat message tells me about it. That is one form of feedback.

Even when I haven’t written or published anything, I sometimes receive new follows and likes, with notifications pushed to my phone app. That is another form of feedback.

I haven’t posted a video in over a month, but my WeChat Channels account still gets new views, followers, and comments every day. People even send private messages or add me on WeChat. That is feedback too.

You see, I’m not actually doing anything. I simply published some content in the past and left it there. But it keeps “running” online, finding an audience, creating connections between people, and bringing in small returns, without stopping for a moment.

The returns may be small, but what matters is that they keep flowing.

This is what people call “income while you sleep.”

Isn’t this the kind of income everyone wants? Only recently have I begun to experience how satisfying it is—the wonderful feeling that something keeps earning money automatically even when I do nothing.

I am also beginning to understand “the power of work you create.”

When you publish something you have carefully made—an article, a video, or a product—online, someone who needs it may resonate with it, benefit from it, or pay for it. That creates a data point, a connection, or a transaction.

The more people benefit from that work, the more positive returns its creator can receive. That is compounding over time.

One person has only 24 hours a day. If a block of time can be sold only once, that is the typical “employee model.”

But if a product or piece of work you create with one block of time can keep bringing in many times the return, doesn’t that mean you own a “good asset” that can compound?

The more assets you have that generate compounding returns, the more “income while you sleep” you have.

As they accumulate, one day that income may exceed your main income or everyday expenses. Your life might then break free of the “employee model” altogether. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

03

All right. If you see this as a path with some degree of certainty, and you want greater freedom in life, what should you do?

Starting now, you should “push” yourself to create more, and create frequently. Try to produce work every day or every week. Keep expressing yourself, building influence, and creating “good assets.”

If they cannot generate sufficiently large returns to satisfy you right now or in the short term, that isn’t a reason to question whether the path is right. It simply means your work or products are not yet good enough to produce returns that large.

What you need to do is keep studying and improving your ability to create, and keep studying market demand, until you produce work and products that meet the need. You are continually running this loop.

This is the path with the greatest certainty.

But... is it easy to walk?

I would say no.

But that is the essence of entrepreneurship.

In fact, sticking with anything for more than three months already puts you ahead of 95% of people in China.

Yet the reality is that most people do it for only a few days before asking the kind of question in the screenshot at the beginning.

At its core, isn’t it asking: can I succeed tomorrow? Or can I make a lot of money next week?

Haha. Everyone wants the result. Who cares about the process?

04

You see, even though people understand the reasoning and know the approach with the greatest certainty, only a very small number actually put it into practice, follow through, and start with one small thing after another.

To put it bluntly, for people who cannot even take action and persist, any paid learning product is just something that takes advantage of them. Buying it is of no use.

If you cannot even take action and persist, what makes you think you can gain followers who deeply trust you, are willing to pay for your products, and won’t feel exploited after paying?

There is no such thing as getting something for nothing. If there appears to be, it must be a scam.

So, as I said, what entrepreneurs should be doing most is finding ways to turn uncertainty into certainty.

Then, as long as you are on that path, all that remains is dealing with obstacles as they arise and solving problems as you encounter them—clearing a way through mountains, building bridges over water, and walking steadily onward.

-End-