15d • 💯 Value
The Act of Investment
The investments we make in life almost always have a return value. Like the term ROI (Return on Investment), whenever you make deposits into anything, it's with the expectation that you will be receiving something of equal or greater value in return.
The bigger the investment, the greater the return. When investing in stocks, the more stocks you buy of the right investment, the more value you receive in return in the future. It takes time to see that investment grow, and much of the market growth is determined by the actions of the company you choose to invest in. If they make good decisions, your investment increases; if they make bad decisions, your investment decreases.
Similar to a 401k, the more you invest over the years, the greater the return will be. You don’t get that return immediately, but it does grow and become worth more as time goes on and you keep putting into it. When choosing to invest in yourself, career, education, leadership, finances, others, faith, skillsets, stocks, 401k, or whatever you decide, you will rarely get to determine the amount you’ll receive from those investments.
Everyone would like to invest $10 into something and get $1,000 back immediately, yet it’s unlikely to happen. However, you do get to choose what you invest in. Additionally, you also get to choose where the returns are deposited.
Like telling your job which bank account you want your paychecks to be direct deposited into. You may not choose how much your paycheck is, but you do decide where you receive the money. This also applies to other areas of your life, if you invest in your ability to lead others, then you receive a return in your leadership bank account.
You may not choose how much the return is, but you do choose where the investment goes. Likewise with your faith, finances, communication, career, skills, mindset, and the list goes on. By making those decisions to invest in the areas you’d like a return on, then a return in that area is what you will receive.
People understand this when it comes to stocks;
“If I don’t put any money in, I won't get any money out.”
But they often fail to grasp that growing in all areas of your life functions the exact same way. By not investing in your abilities, you don't get a return on them. Yet people think that over many years of simply waiting, one day they will somehow receive a great return. However, it’s not coming. Make zero investments, receive zero returns.
We’ve likely all seen people make bad bets, receive bad returns, yet keep making those bets anyway, wondering why they keep losing out. Like buying scratch-off tickets and losing your money, then buying more in hopes they’ll get lucky enough to win their money back.
Same with gambling, I’ve seen friends invest over $500 at a casino in an attempt to win back the original $200 they lost. Their investment left them with a return of negative $700, yet the next night they went back attempting to win their $700, all to walk out negative $1,000.
We make bets in life that take more from us than they give to us, yet we keep making those choices in hopes that one day, somehow, magically, all our negative investments will produce positive returns, but they only return to us void, empty, and at a greater price.
It reminds me of this quote,
“Activity is not necessarily accomplishment. Prioritize the activities that get you the return.”
When choosing to invest in your personal growth, the return always comes back multiplied. You may not choose how much the return is, but you will always be in control of where it’s deposited.
A friend of mine, Nathan Sparks, once shared with me,
“Building and maintaining meaningful relationships with those that we encounter in our daily lives, including in our respective professions, is an investment that will always pay dividends.”
Investing in your relationships pays off later in life. This is one area that I'm very passionate about. My friend Chad was starting to write his book and sent me a short excerpt from it, and asked for my feedback. That’s him investing in me. I could have returned his investment by reading it and saying, “Looks good,” like a few others he asked for feedback from did. But I wanted to ensure that he knows, when he chooses to invest in me, it returns multiplied. Line by line, paragraph by paragraph, I shared suggestions to enhance his writing, gave my thoughts on his concepts and the stories he shared, pointed out areas where I was confused by his writing, and made minor corrections to mistakes I noticed. When I sent that document back to him, he called me very thankful and shared how much he appreciated me being so thorough.
This interaction was an investment in our relationship. He invested in me, then I invested in him, and we both received a multiplied return. This is to share that relationships are some of the most important investments you will ever make, and additionally, to ensure that when others choose to invest in you, you always return their investments multiplied.
Sometimes the best way to return people’s investment in us is to do something with what they gave us. Like a mentor who shares their wisdom with their student, who then implements that wisdom and gets results. Oftentimes, the mentor's ROI is seeing their students succeed.
If you want a good return on life, then you need to make great investments in life; your own life and the lives of others. Invest daily, invest big, and always return other people's investments multiplied.
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The Act of Investment
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