复利式的关系让生活更轻松Compounding Relationships Make Life Easier
Nivi：之前我们谈过复利，但没有深入展开。
Naval：人际关系是复利的一个很好的例子。一旦你与某人维持了一段时间的良好关系——无论是商业上的还是感情上的——生活就会轻松很多，因为你知道那个人会支持你，你不必一再怀疑。
如果我要和一个共事 20 年、彼此信任的人做一笔交易，我们甚至不必阅读法律合同。也许我们根本不需要起草法律合同，也许握个手就能成事。这种信任让做生意变得非常容易。
互信让做生意变得容易
如果尼维和我再创办一家公司，而事情进展不顺，我知道我们俩都会极其理性地决定该怎么做——如何退出或关闭它。或者，如果我们正在扩张，如何引入新人。我们彼此信任，这让我们更容易创业，并让这种效应不断复利。
创业公司失败最不为人知的原因，是创始人之间分崩离析。
创业本身极其艰难，因此消除创始人之间潜在的摩擦点，可能就是成功与失败的分水岭。
宁要几段能够复利的关系，也不要许多肤浅的关系
Nivi：关于复利，有几件反直觉的事。第一，大部分收益来自最后阶段，所以一开始你可能看不到巨大的回报。
山姆·奥特曼写道："我一直希望它是一个这样的项目：一旦成功，我职业生涯的其余部分都将黯然失色，形同脚注。"再说一次，复利的大部分收益都来自最后。
复利另一件反直觉的事：拥有几段深厚的、能够复利的关系，好过许多肤浅的、无法复利的关系。
创办一家小公司付出的努力，与创办一家大公司一样多
Naval：关于生意，有一件人们没有意识到的事：创办一家小公司付出的努力，和创办一家大公司一样多。
无论你是埃隆·马斯克，还是镇上经营三家意大利餐厅的老板，你都要每周工作 80 小时；你紧张得汗流浃背；你招人、解雇人；你努力让账目保持平衡；压力巨大；而且这会耗费你一年又一年的人生。
一种情况下，你得到价值 500 亿到 1000 亿美元的公司，以及所有人的崇拜。另一种情况下，你也许赚了一点钱，拥有几家不错的餐厅。所以，要往大了想。
Nivi: Earlier, we talked about compound interest, but we didn’t dig into it much.
Naval: Relationships offer a good example of compound interest. Once you’ve been in a good relationship with somebody for a while—whether it’s business or romantic—life gets a lot easier because you know that person’s got your back. You don’t have to keep questioning.
If I’m doing a deal with someone I’ve worked with for 20 years and there is mutual trust, we don’t have to read the legal contracts. Maybe we don’t even need to create legal contracts; maybe we can do it with a handshake. That kind of trust makes it very easy to do business.
Mutual trust makes it easy to do business
If Nivi and I start another company and things aren’t working out, I know we’re both going to be extremely reasonable about deciding what to do—how to exit or shut it down. Or if we’re scaling it, how to bring in new people. We have mutual trust, and that allows us to start businesses more easily and compounds the effect.
The most under-recognized reason startups fail is because the founders fall apart.
A startup is so difficult to pull off, so removing potential friction points between founders can be the difference between success and failure.
It’s better to have a few compounding relationships than many shallow ones
Nivi: There are a couple of non-intuitive things about compounding. The first is that most of the benefits come at the end, so you may not see huge benefits up front.
Sam Altman wrote, “I always want it to be a project that, if successful, will make the rest of my career look like a footnote.” Again, most of the benefits of compounding come at the end.
Another thing that’s non-intuitive about compounding: It’s better to have a few deep compounding relationships than many shallow, non-compounding relationships.
It takes just as much effort to create a small business as a large one
Naval: One thing about business that people don’t realize: it takes just as much effort to create a small business as it does to create a large one.
Whether you’re Elon Musk or the guy running three Italian restaurants in town, you’re working 80 hours a week; you’re sweating bullets; you’re hiring and firing people; you’re trying to balance the books; it’s highly stressful; and it takes years and years of your life.
In one case, you get companies worth $50-$100 billion and everyone’s adulation. In the other, you might make a little bit of money and you’ve got some nice restaurants. So think big.