Words of Wisdom, Email Newsletter
Plant seeds of wisdom today
Take the next 40 or so breaths slowly and reflect deeply on your life. I hope these words help you grow in you the most valuable treasure in life: wisdom. Wisdom grows imperceptibly but flourishes like a mighty oak, standing the test of time
WoW 112: On the power laws of virtue
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Investing in companies is about power laws.
You must be patient and invest significant capital in a single company, a huge commitment, and then wait.
Let’s say you may make 5, or 15, or 150 bets. Only one or two bets really matters: the ones that experiences 10x or 100x growth over the course of decades. The vast majority of the wealth made comes from one to a handful of investments.
Your virtues are about power laws. If you invest your time and commit your actions into the right handful of virtues, you get a shockingly outsized return. But it is not immediately obvious that what you do today to grow in honesty, courage, love, or service will pay off in a decade, let alone tomorrow. It often costs you dearly.
It's only in taking these actions consistently, and from a pure place, and with the hindsight of time that you can really see if becoming virtuous will pay off.
Investing into a company, you could say, is all about investing in the people who built the company. You are putting a huge sum of money, which is stored energy, into what someone else wants: the company they built that you hope will generate massive amounts of value, or energy, over time.
Experiencing the power law growth of virtue is like that: you invest not in what you selfishly want now, but in what God wants: you commit your will and your life, a significant amount of your own energy, into following and worshipping God. The more you do, the bigger the return.
The real trick is to invest everything you have, surrender it all, to the gamble of following Jesus.
There is no hedging your bets.
Go all in.
Model your life after Jesus. Become his apprentice.
Seek to grow in virtue by abiding in Him.
Virtues are so significant because everything good in your life depends on your character. If you don't invest in growing in virtue, eventually it catches up to you. You might gain the whole world but lose your soul.
Quotes
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it."
Jesus, Matthew 13:45-46
For what is more consistent with faith than to acknowledge ourselves naked of all virtue, that we may be clothed by God; empty of all good, that we may be filled by him; slaves to sin, that we may be liberated by him; blind, that we may be enlightened by him; lame, that we may be guided; weak, that we may be supported by him; to divest ourselves of all ground of glorying, that he alone may be eminently glorious, and that we may glory in him?
Jean Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
Questions
Who are you becoming?
Are you on a path to growing in virtue?
What is one small area you are compromising in that you can address today?
What stronghold do you need to surrender or re-surrender to God?
(Use these questions as a journal prompt and prayers this week)
Endnote
Entrust yourself to God today. It's the best investment you could ever make.
Live wisely,
Josh
P.S. In case you missed it, if you're hoping to live a more purpose-filled life, I have a 10 post series on Meaningful Action. Click the link and I'll send an email each day for the next 10 days.
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