Would You Prefer a Linear or Exponential Growth Rate?

Most people would probably rush to answer exponential,

which is the right answer, but most people don’t realize that

linear growth actually outpaces exponential growth at the early stages.

That’s when the hockey stick looks largely flat.

Try this exercise:

Would you rather get paid $2/hr forever or

$0.02/hr with a doubling pay rate at each completed hour?

If you draw out this table, you’ll see that you would be way better off

getting paid steadily for the first 11 hours.

But at the 12 hour, you would make almost twice as much using option 2.

Most people model their business growth linearly and think short term.

They think of short term tactics to get the next 2 or next 10 customers now.

An exponential thinker plays the long game.

They think strategically for how to get the next 2X or next 10X customers months from now.