Good things come to those who wait (and hustle in the meantime)

Not trying to be provocative, but I'll use a quote from Lenin to illustrate this lesson 😅

“There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.”

Well, this applies to entrepreneurship as well.

If you’re saving money and investing, you might be familiar with the concept of compound interest.

To make it simple: compound interest is the money you can make from both an initial deposit and the interests you accumulate over the years: the “interest on interest”.

In a non-monetary aspect, compound interest also exists in some way. The benefit you’ll obtain from a succession of actions will be far higher than the mere sum of those actions.

So, when you:

• Write an in-depth blog and still wait for people to read it
• Publish a LinkedIn post viewed by 100 people and liked by 5
• Spend time on a brand-new feature that is used by 10 people
• Add your company to a startup directory that brings you 3 visitors
• Are shortlisted by an accelerator that doesn’t choose you in the end
• Talk with a prospective customer and they withdraw at the last moment

…you’re actually all set for a good ol’ snowball effect ❄️

It’s discouraging to see efforts do not yield results in the short term, but the fact that you multiply those efforts opens up new, longer-term opportunities.

One example I have in mind was when we applied for a corporate accelerator, only to be shortlisted… and rejected. 6 months later, I received an email asking us to pitch our product in front of the whole board. A loss in the short term, a win in the longer term 💪

Those "decades" where nothing happens are the moment you lay the groundwork for those days where decades happen.

Lesson: good things come to those who wait (and hustle hard in the meantime!)