Leverage: How to move the world with the least effort
/ 2 min read
Give me a long enough lever, and a place to stand, and I’ll move the earth.” - Archimedes
We live in a century where the quality of our decisions is increasingly important since each decision has “leverage”.
The leverage concept is a fundamental mental model that helps us create disproportionate advantages. Being able to create more results, with less effort.
But what means this word?
The essence of this concept is to find the angle which will make everything easier by lifting it in a specific way.
The term leverage comes from the Proto-Indo-European which describes something light, agile, or easy. It also comes from the Latin and Old French, where ‘levier’ which referred to lifting something.
In life we have a lot of problems, but have to find ways to solve it in a clever way. When facing a hard problem ask yourself where the leverage lies. Because that point can make a big difference.
It is easier to conquer than to manage. With enough influence, one finger could turn the world over — Jean Jacques Rousseau
By observing problems and looking for ways to “leverage” in different situations, we can completely change the rules of the game.
The most important resource that we have to create leverage is time. So how we spend our time will depend on the leverage we could create.
We can leverage our time to invest it creating:
- Skills (specific knowledge leverage)
- Creating business relationships (partnership leverage)
- Reputation (brand leverage)
- Raising capital (capital leverage)
- Hiring employees (labor leverage)
- Reading (knowledge leverage)
If you spend your time creating yourself. The combination of leverages will make you an asset. Leverage grows responsibly and taking risks. We create leverage by chasing asymmetric opportunities (where the advantage is unlimited and the disadvantage is almost negligible).
When you start a business, you are creating a replica of yourself. The result is to create an asset, which can create unlimited leverage.
The job of the entrepreneurs is to design vehicles that create leverage. They build machines that turn labor, capital, and products that creates financial and time leverage.
Software and media create leverage because it creates robots that work for you while you sleep.
If we are not looking at where to create leverage, we are losing time and missing opportunities that could help us turn upside down the problems.