As I mentioned in the previous essay, today I would like to share three forms of compounding that Naval discusses—forms that exist beyond money: skills, trust, and brand. These three endure far longer than money. In fact, they can even transcend generations and become a kind of social legacy.
The Gospel of Matthew:
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree.
Another parable says: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” In the Buddhist scripture Vimalakirti Sutra, the mustard seed is also used as a metaphor for something extremely small that contains an immense universe: “Mount Sumeru hidden within a mustard seed; a mustard seed containing Mount Sumeru.”
All of these ancient metaphors point to the same idea: a seemingly tiny beginning, accumulated through time, can eventually produce an enormous outcome. The true power of compounding does not lie in the starting point—it lies in time. Human beings, however, are naturally linear thinkers. We tend to understand the world step by step, and therefore struggle to truly imagine the scale of exponential growth. This is why most people never wait long enough to witness compounding unfold.
What Is True Value?
In the previous essay, I mentioned that compounding is originally a financial term. But Naval approaches it from a more fundamental perspective. So I would like to raise a question: what is the true value of something? How do we measure it?
In most situations, we judge value by asking a simple question: how much money is it worth? This is intuitive, and the most widely used standard in society. Strictly speaking, however, it is not entirely accurate. The reason is simple: money itself is not a stable measuring stick.
Throughout history, almost every government has shown a tendency to expand the money supply. When the supply of money grows, the purchasing power of that money becomes diluted. From another perspective, this functions as a form of hidden taxation. When large amounts of money are created, the number in your account does not decrease—but the value it can exchange for quietly diminishes. If money itself can be diluted, then using money to measure value is like using a ruler that constantly expands and contracts.
Which leads to a more interesting question: if money is not the most stable measure, then how should real value be measured? In Naval’s view, there are three things that are rarely diluted: skills, trust, and brand.
1. The Compounding of Skills — Finding Your Unique Skill
What is a unique skill? It is something that feels unusually natural and easy for you, but extremely difficult for others. It is the work you truly love—and that genuinely fits who you are. Typically, it is something that cannot be easily standardized in education, outsourced, or automated. The most irreplaceable skills tend to emerge at the intersection of three things: your talent, your curiosity, and long-term deliberate effort. Naval calls this “Specific Knowledge.”
I have always believed that each person has a kind of calling. Some discover it and have the courage to pursue it. Some discover it but never act on it. Some discover it too late. And some may never discover it at all.
Many people have told me they want to become artists, but hesitate to act. I can completely understand why. In Taiwan’s social environment, when you look around, art rarely appears as a visible part of everyday life. It often seems unimportant. And when you ask people around you, most will tell you the same thing: it’s not a viable path. Under such conditions, it is natural that most people hesitate.
But if you reconsider our time through first principles, you will notice something important: we no longer live in a world limited to a single market. You are not only facing the market of a city, or even a country. You are facing the world. Many things that once appeared too niche can actually find their place at a global scale.
Ultimately, the most important point is this: for me, art has never been a career choice. It is simply something I cannot not do. Because of that, I have never truly felt that I was working. Every part of the art world—from creation to exhibition to collaboration—has always felt fascinating to me. When something is both a deep passion and something you can devote yourself to for a long time, it naturally creates the ideal conditions for compounding.
2. The Compounding of Trust — The Value of Integrity
In our time, integrity is sometimes mistaken for naivety. Yet in reality, reputation and trust are among the most difficult assets to replicate. In a certain sense, trust is also the essence of money itself.
The U.S. dollar became the world’s reserve currency not simply because it was printed, but because people trust the American system. Its military strength, rule of law, and global financial infrastructure together create this structural trust. People believe that no matter where they are, the dollars they hold will still be accepted. At its core, money functions as a network of trust.
The same principle applies to relationships between people. Every time you keep a promise, every time you stop yourself before crossing a moral line, you are making a deposit into what might be called a trust account. When you consistently do the right things over a long period, people begin to trust you. In an uncertain world, trust provides something increasingly rare: a sense of safety. And then, one day, opportunities begin to appear on their own. You no longer spend all your time searching for opportunities; you begin using your judgment to select them.
Let me offer a personal example. In my collaborations with institutions across different countries, some partnerships have lasted more than five years. In the first year, we required formal contracts to define the collaboration. But by the fifth year, sometimes a short message is enough to establish an agreement—because we both know that once I make a commitment, I will get it done. More interestingly, many new collaborations have emerged through introductions based on those existing relationships of trust. Trust quietly lowers the cost of cooperation. That is the compounding of trust, built through the long-term accumulation of one’s commitments and character.
3. The Compounding of Brand — The Power of Long-Term Consistency
A brand—whether personal or institutional—is the accumulation of reputation, recognition, and perception over time. As a brand gradually earns the trust of the market, a reinforcing cycle begins to form. Opportunities, attention, and collaborations start to gravitate toward it. Value is no longer created through isolated transactions, but through sustained accumulation.
The true power of a brand is not simply that more people know you. It is that when people must make a choice, you are the first name that comes to mind. When a brand begins to form, people are no longer merely purchasing your work, product, or service—they are purchasing certainty. The same skill, without a brand, may simply be labor; under a strong brand, it can command a premium. In essence, a brand is an amplifier of trust.
When skills and trust continue to accumulate over time, a brand gradually emerges. And once established, it in turn amplifies the value generated by those skills and that trust. This creates a true compounding structure.
Yet there is another aspect of branding that is often overlooked: risk. When your name becomes a brand, every action becomes a form of bet. One poor decision can consume years of accumulated trust; one principled and courageous decision can elevate the brand to an entirely new level. A brand takes a long time to build, but can be damaged very quickly. This is why enduring brands place enormous importance on judgment and principles. Once a brand exists, the risk you carry is no longer just the risk of a single transaction—it is the risk of the entire compounding system.
The Flywheel: Skills, Trust, and Brand as One
When skills, trust, and brand begin operating together, compounding truly starts to reveal its power. In the end, you may notice something interesting: they may appear to be three separate things, but in reality they form a continuous compounding system—a flywheel.
Skills allow you to create value. Trust makes others willing to work with you. And brand becomes the amplifier of trust over time. As skills accumulate, trust begins to form; as trust is validated by time, it gradually crystallizes into brand. And then one day, you may notice something unexpected: opportunities begin to seek you out. You no longer need to prove yourself. You simply need to choose.
Many people believe success comes from a dramatic turning point. But in most cases, those moments that appear miraculous are simply the visible eruption of years of compounding. The parable of the mustard seed already told us everything. True power rarely begins as something large; more often, it begins as something small—and quietly expands through time.
Every correct judgment you make, every promise you keep, and every sincere collaboration is an accumulation of compound interest. The real question is not how much you have today. The real question is: are the things you do every day creating compounding?
