Small improvements, stacked for a decade

Most professionals overestimate what they can change in a year and underestimate what they can change in a decade. The math of compounding is unintuitive in both directions.

One percent better at one thing, repeated weekly, looks like nothing for the first year and like a different person by the fifth.

Almost every great career is built this way and very few are built any other way. The grand reinvention is rare. The patient, weekly improvement is available to anyone.

The trick is to pick the right one percent and to let the math work.