Compound Growth

Episode 01 – Welcome to Compound Growth

• Season 1 • Episode 1

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In the inaugural episode of Compound Growth, hosts Wheeler Crowley and Colin Walker kick things off by exploring the core philosophy behind the podcast: the power of consistent, strategic progress over time. From their backgrounds in startups and brand-building to the lessons learned through failure and iteration, Wheeler and Colin unpack the moments that shaped their approach to growth—both personal and professional.

This episode sets the tone for what's to come: candid conversations, real-life insights, and a behind-the-scenes look at the people and processes driving sustainable success. Whether you’re building a business, honing your craft, or just curious about what it takes to create long-term value, this is the place to start.

Follow along and be part of the journey. Each week, you’ll hear stories, frameworks, and tactics designed to inspire action and encourage reflection—because growth isn’t just about big leaps; it’s about what compounds.

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Credits:
Created By: Wheeler Crowley and Colin Walker
Production Assistance: Tori Rothwell
Editing and Post-Production: Steven Sims

Welcome to the Compound Growth Podcast with Colin and Wheeler, where we talk all things growth.From financial growth to career growth, personal development to societal progress, we explore how each layer builds on the next, compounding over time to shape who we become.Each week, we break down complex ideas and emerging trends into clear, actionable insights.Because growth isn't just about numbers.It's about understanding the world and our place in it.We'll see you next time.We'll be right back.What is Compound Growth Podcast?What are we doing here?I thought about this.Okay.Let's hear your answer.I have also thought about this, but I want to hear you first.Okay.We talk about this a lot.being in the trenches of the business, if you will.I find that we get a million questions every day, a million ideas every day, and we sometimes get into the weeds of everything.And I find that a lot of people do this with life in general.But if we were to zoom out and look at things not on a micro level, but a macro level,I think that that is what we would like to talk about oftentimes if I just kind of go off of our own planning conversations.These are the ten things that happened in the business this week.However, this is ultimately what we're trying to achieve over here.We need to keep an eye on this.It's almost like a macro topic.Yeah, big picture stuff.Kind of, yeah.Yeah, I guess so.And I think that that's what true growth is, is identifying goals and going after them and looking at things from a bigger perspective.I mean, growth is the goal, right?Right.However we define that in whatever shape or form it takes.Right.I was thinking about the title, you know, the concept of compound growth, because obviously from an investment standpoint, it's, you know, your investments compounding the growth on top of themselves.Totally.I think personally, the concept of compound growth can and should apply toto everybody across the board in every profession, in every personal life, et cetera.We're essentially a collection of experiences that grow upon each other throughout our lives.And if you recognize those experiences and just how they connect and how they stack on top of each other,then I think you can grow to become something that's greater than what you started as.Yeah.So it's almost like, as opposed to thinking about it from an actual finance perspective, thinking about how life experiences, trends, everything out there can ultimately form who you are, your own opinions, what we're trying to do as a business, how it affects our clients.Yeah.And I think being able to connect the dots, to curate everything that we soak up is what people find really as a value add in our conversations with our clients as well.Yeah, I think so too.I mean, basically you're a funnel.I don't know how many calls we've gotten over the last few weeks with just random questions about whether it's tariffs or taxes or retirement or whatever it might be, because it's that time of year and things are a little crazy at the moment.But with that being said, when you have a million things being thrown at you to be able to funnel that down into, I'll say bigger ideas and picture.Yeah.I think that that's my vision for what we're doing is we're starting at this point in the growth path that we're on right now.And we're gonna be able to share and talk about everything that we have soaked up and put together.And then I expect, you know, we do this for a hundred episodes.We'll be very different from where we started, you know?Well, it's kind of interesting because if you think about compound growth in general, sure, there's the investment side of things.And, you know, we can talk about that until the cows come home.But there's also, if you think about it,in terms of relationships and experiences and everything else.Like, okay, I look at this, I go back to 8th grade.I met my best friend in 8th grade.And then that friend led to other friends.And then those friends led to other friends.So the compound growth amongst relationships.And it's the same thing we've seen with clients.Like often we start with a few clients and those clients lead to referrals and then referrals.And then before you know it, you've got this huge network of people that you didn't even know a few years ago.And I think it's the same thing as we talk to additional people on the podcast.It's almost like compound growth is a journey.Yes.Yeah.That's fun.You know, I really enjoyed those stories at your wedding and just like hearing about like all these, just like random connections and how they all kind of like manifested and came to be together that day.Right.And obviously you're the connecting dot there, the connecting through line.But I wonder if, uh,you know, we should change the co and co fi from collective to compound because it's actually not a bad idea.I mean, we get to say whatever it means, right?Yeah, that's true.That's the benefit of an abbreviation.We're in charge of that.Yeah, for sure.There's this, um, there's this quote, um, when you walk through the West side of Portsmouth, um, there's a mural that's kind of like fading and like part of it, the paint has been worn away, et cetera.But, um,It's a quote by this guy, John Muir, who is a mountaineer, I found.I didn't know.Where is this?It's over by kind of like the Loaded Questions Brewery.Okay, got it.What road is that?I don't even know which road.I don't know.Yeah.So I would drop Michaela.at piano lessons, I would go for a walk and I'd listen to a podcast.And at the end of the walk, I'd come across this John Muir quote.And I was like, who is this John Muir person?And that quote is every walk with nature, which has nothing to do with what I'm saying today.But that quote is in every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.And I always thought that that was, you know, it's kind of like a way to be in tune or just a reminder to be in tune with your surroundings, right?Right.But I was reading the Book of Charlie, right?The Charlie Munger's Almanac, right?There was another John Muir quote.And this is the first time I've heard of this person outside of that one mural in Portsmouth.But that quote was, when we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.So again, everything is connected.There's that interconnectivity all around us.And it's all, I think, if you can identify all those connections,and stack your understanding of them on top of themselves, then that's that compound growth that we're looking for.This takes me back to the Lord of the Rings quote.Which one?Where Bilbo Baggins is talking about leaving your door.Do you know this one?I'm sure you've probably heard it.It's the first movie, right?Yeah, so it's a dangerous business going out your door.You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.And I find that to be the case with everything in life and that we do.And it compounds on top of each other.So like as a perfect example, like let's talk about what's going on politically right now.You know, someone's like, oh, okay, well, you know, I'm worried about this particular thing with politics.And then next thing you know, they're getting pulled and sucked down to this other road.And then they discover 6 other issues.Right.And then they worry about those 6 other issues.And then that compounds into being marketed towards all these other channels.And it just like, you go down these rabbit holes, whether they're good or bad.But I think the idea that everything compounds on top of each other, whether it's your actions, your relationships, your habits, your thoughts, like anything.It's pretty powerful.It is.You know, what's funny though, is that it's kind of like what you brought upit's almost like the inverse of it, right?To a degree where you say like, you're unhappy with, let's say just the political environment that we're in for whatever reason it might be.And then you apply that to your investment strategy.And you say, well, we're doomed.And it's like, you can see those dots connected, but the question is whether they should be connected or not, right?Because in that case, they likely shouldn't be, right?These 2 things have to exist in separate channels.Right.So in some ways, you have to recognize what's useful in connectivity and maybe what we're kind of fooling ourselves.I think as people, we're always trying to connect the dots.We're always trying to figure out what something means.And sometimes we can trick ourselves.We can kind of go down the wrong path and realize that it didn't send us where we were hoping it would go.Well, I totally agree.I mean, compound growth can be positive or negative.And in my mind, you know, like You can have compound losses too.You can compound your losses and that's really not great.So, you know, compound growth, obviously, you know, we're in the finance world.So we think about it in terms of that.But just based off of our conversation today, we recognize the fact that it can take you down many different paths and many different roads.What I'm excited about about this podcast in general is the fact that hopefully what we'll be talking about is more of the compound growth, not the compound loss.If that's the case, we should probably change the name.But so on that front, you know, if you think more positively about things and if you focus on going down the correct path, often you'll end up at a better result.Yeah.Well, that's also true, right?Like I've always thought of myself as being a pragmatic optimist, right?I think that optimism is a strength in general, right?But you have to also, you can't just be foolish.You can't be blind to the threats or the risks or the world around you, et cetera.You can't always just think it's a sunshine and rainbows environment.Right.I mean, it's just kind of like, you know, we talk about this market goes down, great buying opportunity.You can look at it like that or the world's exploding.And then you could also look at it like, you know, okay, well-interest rates are going up or the remaining flat or whatever it is.But, you know, you're getting, you know, four and a half to 5 percent on a bond right now, which, you know, is fantastic if you look at the last ten to 15 years.So for conservative investors, there's opportunities.And even with the market going down, there's always opportunities out there no matter where you look.Yeah.I mean, it's, it's one of those situations where you don't know if something was good or bad until much, much further down the road in a lot of cases.I mean, I think that there are some things that we can all agree they're bad.Right.Yeah.Yeah.I was thinking about that, the helicopter crash in New York City.Yeah, New York, yeah.And that was like a week after we were in New York thinking about taking Blade.And I was like, man, you know, it can happen so quickly.I don't even know if they know what happened yet.I'm not sure if they figured that out.There's a lot of conspiracies out there.Who knows?It was a very freak accident.I mean, I saw a thing where basically in order for that to happen, it would have had to have beensome sort of catastrophic with the maintenance on the aircraft.Like something huge was missed.It's like driving out your door with a tire missing.Right, right.But if you were to just go the wrong way in connecting those dots, you're like, wow, that family died in a helicopter and Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter.I should never go in a helicopter.Helicopters are now unsafe forever.Helicopters should be banned.But I think it's just like, it's a reminder of the fragility of life.And I think we can all agree that that's a bad thing that happened.I don't think we have to discuss whether that was good or bad.I'll tell a story that I told you the other day, but I think it's relevant to the conversation.So driving on 95 on Sunday afternoon, rainy day.Over in the furthest lane to the left as I typically am.Typically in a hurry.And all of a sudden, we have the alert on the dashboard that we've got a flat tire.And the first message it says is continuous driving possible.And I'm like, all right, well, I've seen air leakage from this tire before.It hasn't happened for like a year or 2, but I've seen this happen before.It was more or less okay.So I say something to Jess, and Jess is like, you need to pull over immediately.And I'm like, no, I think it's going to be fine.We're going to make it.And I'm like, but you know, just in case, I'll check the app, right?Because it will tell me what the tire pressure is.Oh, okay.Right?So I'm like, here, can you just check the app?And all of a sudden, it'sAnd I'm like, all right, well, I'll start to go slower.And Jess is like, you need to pull overAnd I'm like, all right, fine.I'll take this seriously.She's the realist.I'm going to put my optimism aside.I'll be pragmatic here and I'll pull over.And I get out.And by the time we pull over, it's at 8 percent.And I'm like, OK, and this is this is pretty bad.Unrecoverable.Yeah.Yeah.So we're over on the side of 95, which is a pretty dangerous situation.Yes.Right.Like I called for help, multiple people for help for various reasons throughout this.And each one of them started with like, are you safe?Do you want the police to come?And I'm like, this is a really big deal.I'm fine.Also, how much does it cost?Yeah, exactly.Well, that depends.Yeah.Right.Right.So we're pulled over on the side of the road and I'm figuring out what to do here.I got to call AAA or, you know, what do we do?And in the meantime, I have Justin McKayla with me.Right.So I'm, I'm not like not in this alone, but I'm also responsible for other people.Right.And McKayla is like oblivious.We're just pulled over.She's like looking at her iPad.She has no idea.She's like something bad is happening, but this has nothing to do with this episode of TV.I'm watching right now.McKayla is not going to fix the tire.She's not going to be like in the Christmas story where it's like out there.Yeah.Oh fudge.Um, so,Call AAA and line up a tow truck.Thankfully, we have AAA.I'm very happy about that.But there's no reason for Jess and Michaela to stick around, so we call an Uber, which is as easy as just pulling out your phone, getting on an app, et cetera.Uber sends their driver to a cul-de-sac that's a mile through the woods, nowhere near.So I'm just messaging the guy, call the guy, message the guy.He agrees to come get us on the highway, which is also a lovely thing to do.And so he shows up, picks up the girls, and takes them home, which is really great.I wait about 20, 30 minutes more, and AAA shows up.Guy gets out of the truck, says, hey, just so you know, I can only tow you 3 miles before I start tracking you 5 dollars a mile.Maybe we can find a better way.Okay.Right.Like let's try to put air in the tire.So we put the air in the tire and the air goes.Doesn't even.Okay.Yeah.So.Tire's done.So then I'm like, you know, there's this other number on my dash that says call for help and it's BMW assistance.Maybe I should start by calling them.So I'm like, Hey, let's, let's, you know, I'll suck it up.No, I don't even, I'm like, I'm just going to pay a hundred dollars.That's just going to be my day today.Right.And I'm like, put it on the truck.We'll figure this out.So I call BMW.I'm like, Hey, am I covered by like any roadside assistance?They're like, Oh yeah, you're fully covered.I'm like, well, what does that mean?Like how much does it cost?No, it's free.I'm like,And I'm like, are there any other benefits?They're like, well, we'll pay for your Uber.And I'm like, oh, can you pay for the one I just booked and sent Michaela and Jess on?No, no, no, we can't retroactively pay for the Uber.But they would have.Because I didn't do this first, I had to pay for the Uber, which is fine.So I go to the AAA guy.I'm like, hey, can you just tow me 3 miles up the road?I'm going to have another tow truck come and get me and go to the dealership.I hop in.We have a nice conversation.I go to the Rusty Can, which is a wonderful barbecue joint.And I just sit there and have a beer while I'm waiting for the next BMW truck to come and get me.And that guy comes, hooks me up, and tows me to the right dealer.Now, I've learned a lot in this process.Number one,It's really convenient that we have this app on our phone that we can just call a car and get help.I'm thankful that we had AAA.I'm also thankful that I had this other roadside assistance.I was set up for success if I just made the right moves, which I debatedly did not.I'm thankful for the technology that told me that we had this issue and I was able to pull over to the side of the road.I'm thankful for a wife who is taking things seriously ahead of my ability to take things seriously sometimes.Quite the learning.I'm thankful that they got home safe, that the Uber driver was accommodating, picking us up on the side of 95.It's one of those situations where it's not fun, but it happened on a Sunday afternoon where I had nowhere else I had to be.For perspective, you can look at that situation and say, well, that sucks.That was a wasted afternoon.It was 4 hours.I'm never going to get back.But there were all of these good things that I took away from it.And one of those things was having a conversation with the driver who towed me to the BMW dealership.And this guy, he's from Puerto Rico.he uh he works 5 days a week as a cement mixer cement truck mixer driver and then he works uh saturday and sunday as a tow truck driver right um ten hour shifts saturday and sunday right full regular shifts monday through friday so 60 hours a week this guy's working rightPleasant dude, right?He doesn't complain about anything to me the entire time.And we're talking about the only reason his work comes up is because I'm at the last call of the day and then he gets to sign off for the day.So he's not complaining.He's just saying, here's where he's at in his life, right?Right.And I'm like, what are you working for?He's like, well, I've made a lot of mistakes in life.And I'm finally at a place where I think I can buy a house.So I'm working really hard just to get that done.He's working towards that goal of buying that house.And then once he buys that house, he wants to get another house in Puerto Rico up in the hills, which is going to be much, much cheaper than buying the house in North Carolina where he wants to move.He's sick of the winters in New England.I get it.Aren't we all?But I think that having those goals and making progress towards those goals gave him the perspective he needed to just stay positive, right?And instead of somebody who is complaining about how hard it is to buy a house in the United States at this point, which it is, right?Of course.He's just recognizing that he has an opportunity and he's working hard to make it happen.And, you know, I'm sitting there fairly privileged by comparison, right?There's my BMW on the back of the truck and it's being towed for free.And, you know, I had all this technology helping me out through the day and, you know, inconvenience, but fine, right?And I'm just listening to this guy who works way harder than I do, just honestly, work way harder.He has different stresses in life, et cetera, butI'm just so impressed with like who he was and his approach, right?And I think that,And whenever you have those opportunities where you can look for the silver linings or you can look for the purpose or the reason, that's what's going to ultimately empower you to grow and to compound upon that growth.Because there's a bunch of different things that I'm going to do differently in the future, like not let my tires wear out so badly,And I'm alsogoing to take time to just be thankful for the progress that we've already made technologically.Again, be very appreciative for my wife, who has to suffer through my missteps along the way.So it's a long story, but I think it gets to the point that, overall,If you take a step back and you can assess the situation for what it is. you can pull nuggets from it that are going to help you move forward,And I think that's what that tow truck driver was doing, and that's what my situation is as well.It seems like the tow truck driver really kind of had his eye on one particular prize and a main goal that was driving him.Yeah, I mean even multiple goals, right,It's like that first house. then he's got the second house,second house.So he sees like miles down the road.He sees the first horizon and he's imagining what's past that horizon,And I think that's pretty cool.Yeah, we've talked about this briefly before, but the Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary- and if people haven't seen it, I would highly recommend that they go check it out on Netflix.But there's a section in there where he talks about his family, and he came from a very rough family abusive situation.Yeah,And long story short, he talks about howWhat he went through really drove him as an individual and he was super goal-oriented.He wanted to be Mr Universe and he was so successful at it that he got bored of always winningAnd then he wanted to go into acting and then he wanted to go into politicsAnd throughout all of this he had his investment goals of buying retail spaces and rental properties and all this other stuff,And now he's ultra-successful in pretty much anything that he's set out to do.But then he talks about how that same experience basically led to his brother's demise, because it took him and he looked at it as like a motivational thing,Like, yes, my parents were super tough on me, but my mom was extremely organized.She taught me discipline.She taught me you know how to focus on things and all this other stuff.Meanwhile, you know you have the brother who took it and could just only focus on the negative of it and didn't see what you're pointing out in that tow truck situation.And it's so interesting because I think a lot of people in the world would have taken your situation exactly how you just said it-Right,Like or not how you said it. they would have taken it like a my. you know, I got a flat tire.My afternoon's ruined.This is a pain.This sucksLike it should have never happened to me,RightVersus? your experience with it is like I got to meet this guy.That was a pretty impactful conversation.Thank God I have this technology.I can't believe it was covered,You know, thank God, you know, I have that service because it made everything so much easier.Yeah,You know, thank God, I have Jess, who, you know, helped me through the situationIt didn'tmaybe you would have kept driving on 0 psi for all. i know. no, no, no, never. so there's a lot of things to be thankful for. but it is amazing how one person's interpretation of something can be totally different from another, and the compounding growth of where it takes you is totally different. you can either see it as a growing opportunity or you can use it as a negative opportunity. and i thinkIn our world as well, whenever something negative happens, whether a client has a bad experience, or there's something going on in the markets, or there's something I don't know, whatever happens- we could either see it as a learning opportunity that we know. how do we grow from this? or how do we deal with this for the next time. how do we change portfolios, whatever it might be versus this is horrible. let's turn on the news and get sucked in. talk to clients about how bad it is, things like that.That's not helpful,Yeah.So it is good to be realistic and recognize when things do need to be addressed.But then what can we learn from that?And then what could we take out of it to improve upon?When it comes to, just like a bad market rightLike we've been navigating in 20, 20, 5,if you have put the right pieces in place ahead of time, then you're able to go through that experience and pull something from it. that's just like a learning opportunityAnd it's fairly limited in terms of how bad it gets.Just like I had the technology in place, or we put AAA in place ahead of time, or there are things that we did before this incident happened that made it better.And so when you have, like the bucketing strategies or if you have just an emergency reserve or whatever that financial- I don't know what you want to call it financial preparation- that you put into place, it makes it easier to just be able to,in the middle of a bad situation, look for the silver liningsBuy if the market's down and you have the cash available right,Or just know that you can sleep at night because you've set aside that emergency reserveTotally,Or know that you can sleep at night because you've got somebody to go call and ask: hey, are we going to be okay?Yes, exactly,It's funny, because I find that a lot of people will look at their portfolios in general when the market's down and they'll be like: oh my God, I'm down,however much the dollar amount is today,And it's unbelievable.Meanwhile, other people will look at it and be like: wow, thank God, I have that cash reserveCause, that's not down at all,In fact, it's up year to date, you know, and it's the exact same portfolios,Maybe it's the same values and everything like that, to completely different outlooks on it. in general,It's amazing.Yeah,And it's the. it is again, you know. let's say that,that bucketing or that emergency reserve or that cash didn't give you that confidence to stomach the situation, or it wasn't enough just to call in and say: hey, are we gonna be okay?Then, once you're on the other side of it, because you never wanna panic in the middle of it, once you're on the other side of it, you can reassess, you can look back at that experience and say: what other things can we put in place? right,Of course, yeah,Yeah, I do think that that's how you learn and grow.I agree.Yeah,A question for you.Yeah,The technology that you used to book the car service, to get everything else and all that other stuff, and the amount of resources that you used in that one small hour to get you through that, those things would be very hard to live without at this point.Sure,Yeah,You know,Yeah,I guess my point is- and this is a big pivot, this is basically a complete subject change.Do you think that companies like that now are too big to fail because they're so entrenched in the convenience of life?Yeah,It's funny, because I've been thinking about this a lot, reading Charlie's Almanac and thinking about his approach to investments and looking at my portfolio and thinking: what do I really know about this company?And there's always the Peter Lynch approach of just investing what you know.Right,But I do think that some of these doesn't mean that the stock value can't go down.But some of these companies are just like so, engraved in our daily life,And some of them, like you know, for every Uber there's a Lyft.Maybe there's like. there's some sort of alternative.I'm the perfect example of this.Like you and everybody else I know for the most part uses Spotify.That's true,Right,But I'm an Apple music guy.Yeah,And maybe I don't know why that is,It's just maybe it was convenient for me.Actually I do know why this is.I had a terabyte full of music.A lot of wire?No, well, no, no, no,A lot of this was legitimately purchased,But Apple had a way for me to share that music across all my devices for 30 dollars a year.So for that 130 dollar charge they had me hooked, because if I went to Spotify, some of that stuff wouldn't be there.OK,Right.So then, like every playlist I built,It's gone.It's gone,Like everything's gone right.So it's just that one decision for a thirty dollars changed the entire direction of my audio experience.So now you're totally entrenched.Yeah, yeah,But yeah, do I think that they're too big to fail?When you look at the largest companies in the history of the S&P, they're always turning over.It's like every 7 years or something like that.But it hasn't been that way so much.There's been new entries, but some of them have been on top for a while, like a lot of the MAG-VII names.History says that everything is replaceable.Every company is replaceable.What companyis as necessary now as it was even 50 years ago.I thought about this deeply yesterday.Okay,So one of my friends, who you know, just got a new phone and he got an Android.Okay,And I was just like you got an Android.Green texts.God, what a loser.Yeah.I remember actually asking Tori, one of our new hires, that if someone has green texts, is that an ick?Yeah.That was like our first conversation with Tori.That was our first conversation.Yes.We were actually just judging Tori to see if she had an Android.Which she doesn't, good news.But with that being said, the new iPhone that has coming out, the iPhone 17, have you seen it?I haven't, no.Okay.It's two thousand dollars.Wow.Is it made in America?Great question.I have no idea where it's made.But the point is, is that it's not very good looking and it has some crazy cameras and features.It's a little thinner.Yeah, look it up.But the point is, is that my friend got this Android phone and I was playing with it the other day and it was way nicer than my iPhone in a lot of ways.The features were better.The screen was better.The camera was better.It had all the same features.And now in iMessage, it shows when he's typing, he has emojis, like it's all the same thing.The only thing that's missing is the blue.So I'm sitting here and I'm thinking, is it worth it to save a thousand dollars to get an Android phone that's actually better in every way?Or can I do away with the blue texts?And that's one of my questions is I'll say that to your point, there are a lot of companies that would be very difficult to remove from our daily lives.But there's something similar like a Lyft in this Apple's case, maybe it's Android or whatever it is that does 99.9 9 percent of the stuff.And maybe it's better in a lot of ways.Yeah.but it's just like a small sacrifice, so.So I guess the question is, I mean, I feel like if you're making the switch, you're making it to get a better product, right?In theory, yeah, or to save money.Yeah,Again, going back to my issue with the car on Sunday, if I had just ponied up for the new tires ahead of time, I would have avoided the whole situation.Totally.And I didn't want to spend the money on the tires because I'm thinking of getting rid of the car in 6 months or less.It might even be 2 months, right?Sure.So I was like, well, I'm not going to spend a thousand dollars for these tires.Right.Right.And that was the outcome.And I think that honestly, when I think about financial independence, that's one of, of like the, the prisms I look at it through, you know, I feel like being financially independent isn't just so you can go throw money on whatever the hell you want and just like, you know, be good.Right.But it's to not makedecisions purely for financial purposes.Correct.Right.So if you're if you're saying it's like, you know, the best thing we can ever do to be and like to prove that we're financially independent, which we're not yet.No, I know that.But is to just take money out of the situation, like whenever you can take money out of the situation and analyze it and make a decision, I feel like you're better off.And if it's yours is like, OK, well, I want a better device.What are the second and third derivatives of that decision?That's basically it.That's basically it, right?You don't have anything like So if I switch my iPhone, all of the photos that I share in my iPhoto, they're not on Google Photos or whatever.Everything that's shared with my wife, my daughtermy mother-in-law, my mom, my friends, et cetera.I forgot about the photos.The photos are impacted.Yeah, that's true.I have family plans for all the iTunes stuff.There's a lot of interconnectivity with my laptop, with my desktop.It's just my watch.So can Apple fail?I feel like people are creatures of habit and I think that Apple can stop growing and not fail, right?I mean, I guess you could say that like the absence of growth is death, right?So maybe they just grow at a slower level or whatever.but can Apple just completely go, IBM hasn't even, Intel hasn't even gone away, right?They're shells of their former selves, but they're still there.They're still there.They've got thousands and thousands of employees.Right.So I guess, go back to my question about what,what product made by a specific company is as relevant now as it was 50 years ago?I don't know if I have an answer for that.Debatably chips or something.potato chips?No, no, no.Computer chips.No, NVIDIA wasn't here 50 years ago, right?No, it wasn't.Intel was making chips though.Yeah, but now Apple makes those chips.Apple makes them too.Right.So, okay, here's another thought.So if I look at myself, people are creatures of habit, but one of the things I love to do is break habits often.I find that you and I are always trying to break the mold.And sometimesI think to myself, well, maybe I want to try, I'll keep using Android.Maybe I want to try an Android because it's something different.And I think to a certain extent, I think a lot of people out there looking for new experiences, early adopters, perfect example.Like we'll look at Tesla or electric cars.A lot of people rushed into them right away and, you know.People have stuck with them.Other people have moved on, whatever it might be.But there's always that early adopter mentality out there.I wouldn't consider myself the earliest of adopters, but maybe the next rung after that.You're not the very bottom of that curve.I'm not the very bottom, but I'm slightly up where I'm looking for new things constantly.And I think that that's where a lot of growth, to be honest, can kind of come from is just trying new things in general.Yeah, no, I agree.I mean, honestly, if you're looking for the growth in a company, it's always like the, the, the best compound growth is early entry.Totally.Right.Yeah.So I think that's, that's a good point.And it's part of your personality and it's part of our, my personality.So like one of the reasons that we click and that the business grows, right.Yeah.Is that we're always exploring new, new things.I think though, at the same time, there's a push pull because I know personally, I'm a creature of habit, right?And I need, I like, I survive based on my habits, right?Like if I don't have the right routines and habits, then like, if you took away my Peloton app tomorrow, I'd be like,Well, I can go outside for a run and that'll be fine, right?Or I could get a gym membership, right?But when I do those activities will be very, very different.It'll be more invasive into my life.If I can't just go to my basement and hop on my Peloton, right?then I have to make time for this new thing.And it's less likely to happen, right?It doesn't mean it won't happen, but for me, it would be less likely.Right.Yeah.I mean, I mean, that is true.I guess it's, it is less likely, but there was another quote, like I heard the other day we were watching the big short and I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was something to the extent of like deep in their hearts, everybody is waiting for the end of the world.So I guess- I don't think that's true though.I don't think it's true, but I guess my point is with this is I understand what you're saying, the creatures of habit and everything, but I think there are people that inherently like will always be looking for some sort of change in the next big thing and whatever it might be.And like,what happens if Apple actually did end up going under or falling behind?And then like, what's the fail safe from them?What that would actually look like?Or like what happened if your routine was changed with the Peloton?What happens if Peloton went under and then your bike just stopped having classes on it?You know, what would you do after that?What's the fail safe?I, you know, what's funny is that, um,Jess has always been surprised.I didn't have like one of the first iPods, right?And it's because I had like just some other junky MP 3 player that held like 40 or 50 songs and I was like just content with that, right?And plus I was broke.We'll gloss over that.When I was out in LA working in the entertainment industry, they would give you a phone.Like every assistant had a phone provided to them, right?Because you were glued to it, right?It's not like a privilege.It was like- It's your job.Yeah.It's like you have the chain and the ball, right?And that's the cell phone.Yeah, yeah.Every hour of the day, right?Yeah.or whenever the person you're helping is awake.So I had a Blackberry and I loved my Blackberry.I missed my Blackberry.And what it's like, I just, I liked the way, like I just liked the typing, I think more than anything else, right?It's just like having a physical keyboard was like, I needed a physical keyboard, right?I got it, yeah.So 3 or 4 years later, I'm out of the entertainment industryeverybody I know has an iPhone and I'm still using my Crackberry and I'm taking really bad photos with it that nobody wants to see, right?Like I've got, like I was backstage at a Dropkick Murphy's show and I'm like taking photos and no one can see what's happening in the photos.Like it, and you know, not for nothing, but there are other reasons that their experience is blurry that night.So, and I'm like, ah, this needs to change.Right.Andit's because I'm just like such a creature of habit.It's, and this, I think overall is the push pull for a lot of people.think that intrinsically we all want to grow and we all want to improve and we all want to develop and we all want to change or we all want to make forwardAbsolutely.But we can be our own worst enemies and we can get in our own way.Right.And that's what I did.I delayed my happiness, satisfaction, camaraderie to a degree, because I was just like, oh, I gotta stick to my Crackberry.I was at a bar over the weekend and watching the masters.It's great.But there was a group of people there that we were chatting with and they were in jobs.And I brought up the fact that I was in finance and they were asking about it.You know, I was like, what do you guys do?And they were looking for new jobs.And I was like, well, why are you looking for a new job?And they were like, oh, well, you know, I'm a teacher or whatever they were.And I've been making the same salary for, you know, 6, 7 years now, you know, plus some inflation adjustments and whatnot, but can't start a family.And I want to look for a job at a different school.And like, well, how much, you know, would a job at a different school increase your pay?And they were like, oh, well, it'd be like a ten to 15 percent bump in my pay.And I'm like, would that be enough to start the family and accomplish your goals?And they're like, oh, well, I don't know.And I'm like, well, have you thought about like what the goal should actually be?Because if the goal is to start a family, like have you mapped out what that might cost?And are you sure you're even on a road that can get you to your end destination?You know, like if I'm trying to go to Massachusetts and if I want to go to Boston for dinner, and if I hop on I95 North, I'm going to have a problem getting there.So my point with them wasif you have goals laid out and if you're very specific with them and this is truly what you want then take action to get you to the goal don't take action to get you to like 50 other steps in between yeah focus on the one thing like the gentleman you brought up with the house like he's doing everything he can to get that first house then he'll focus on the second one yeah if your goal is to start a family or if your goal is to break through the norm and all this stuff it may be a bigger change than what you're anticipatingBut at the end of the day, like being a teacher isn't a bad thing.I think it's a fantastic thing.It's unfortunate it doesn't pay more, which is a whole other conversation.But if you need more money or if you want a different lifestyle or if you're trying to accomplish something different and you can't get there based off of this path, then you have to be honest with yourself.Right.And don't get in your own way.Don't get in your own way.The tow truck driver, he acknowledged that he put himself in a position where he was late to the party, late to work towards this goal.And he's like, look, I made mistakes.And probably because he made those mistakes and waited longer to make progress towards this goal,he's now found himself in a situation where it's even harder to buy a house it's probably like probably the hardest time in the history of this country to buy a house right now right now there's no inventory prices are high interest rates suck yeah and he's not letting that get in his way which is great yeah right but when we get in our own way we can make the situation worse it can compound negatively absolutely um so it's a really it's a really good point andI would argue that there's no can't start a family, right?You can't start a family and continue to live the lifestyle that you're living right now.Absolutely, concessions will be made.Yeah, exactly.Like there's sacrifices or there's choices or prioritization or whatever it might be.Yeah, I mean, what was fascinating about thatwas at the end of the conversation.We had this conversation for like, 20 to 30 minutes.It was kind of like, well, I'll just give it another year to see if I get a raise.Oh, my God.It's always that way.Complacency is the killer of progress.Yeah.Did you say that?I did.Good.Yeah.So long story short, I think if we go all the way back to the very beginning with this,I think compound growth and what we're trying to do here is focus on growing and not just when it comes to portfolios, but life, relationships, lessons, learnings to try to take everybody to that next level of self that they could possibly be.Yeah.Yeah.And doing it the right way, the byproduct of that will be success in other ways.Of course.I still think it's nice to think about things that we're excited about in the future.So what are you excited about?And it can't be a trip to Greece.Okay.I am excited and we'll talk about this here soon.Okay.The tariffs are changing things in the social media world.Okay.And I'm excited to talk about everything that's coming direct from the factories from China.and how that's changing the landscape of how purchases might be made in the future.Okay, cool.So again, like innovating, right?Like finding ways around a bad situation.Something different.Can you get a pair of Nikes now for 2 dollars versus a hundred?You gotta wonder if you can make Nikes for 2 dollars.I'm excited for spring.Okay.I was going to ask, yeah.What are you most excited about?I have realized more and more as I get older, how much I'm impacted by the weather.Weather.Right.Okay.And once you get to this point where like you're in between, like you don't want to go outside and like ski or sled or skate or whatever.It's just kind of like gross.It's like stick season round 2 or muddy or whatever.Once you get to the other side of that, the sun's shining, it feels like there are more opportunities in life when the sun is shining.And I'm excited about that.That's actually, yeah, that's actually a very good point.So then maybe we need to talk about how to get you into the warm weather more often.Yeah, more often.That would be episode 100.I like it.All right, cool.Thank you, Colin.Yeah, thank you, Whaler.We're done.