Respect time
Originally written in Chinese. Translated with AI, reviewed by Gary. Read the Chinese original →
A while ago, on a flight for work, I watched the movie Lucy. One line in it stayed with me:
"Time is the only true unit of measure."
These past few days I also came across a video of a founder sharing an idea: respect time. He said we should lower our expectations of how fast things grow, and go with nature.
Amazon's Jeff Bezos uses "seven years" as the unit of time for planning everything. He says that when you plan in seven years, you find there are actually very few real competitors, because very few people are willing to stick with one thing for seven years.
Time shouldn't be sped up at will
Many founders, me included, like to use fundraising to "paint a picture", hoping the power of capital will shorten time and speed up results.
For example:
A new livestream host really needs two years to develop.
But we lure them with high pay and pile on capital, hoping for results in three months. It usually falls short: either it doesn't work, or it works and the host leaves.
Another example:
We see a pain point in the market and rush to burn money on coupons and grab traffic.
If you look at it with a seven-year view, you'd ask yourself:
"Can I keep burning for seven years?"
The answer is clearly no.
What really stands up to time is foundations
Back to the essence of starting a business: what really matters isn't "speeding up", but "building solid foundations".
- In retail, the foundation is product.
- In social commerce, the foundation is content.
- In a company, the foundation is culture.
Nothing can fight time. Without solid foundations, any acceleration is only surface prosperity.
Respecting time is really respecting yourself
Do what you're good at, and time will build it up. Good luck sometimes comes from catching a tailwind; but even without one, at least we're doing something we love.
A little more accumulation and a little more discipline every day: meditation, exercise, practice, getting a bit better each day. Through the "compounding" of time, these small actions will eventually rebuild the life we want.