Time compounds resources and amplifies opportunity. With my oldest daughter seated behind me on a rented scooter, we jetted through the winding roads of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Our goal was simple enough: we wanted to find one of the island’s cliff edges. Away from the island’s center, the roads are made of packed gravel. The pathways require your concentration as you navigate them at more than 40 miles per hour. The edges are sandy, you veer too close to the edge and you wipe out. Depending on the direction that you choose, you’ll pass dozens of sea-adjacent homes that are visibly named after the families that still own them. And it was one sequence that later inspired a deep dive into the ideas of time (t) as it relates to compounding value (Vc) and business opportunity (Ob).
Standing before a well-lit meeting room of concrete, modernity, and dark steel: Michael Dearing led a professional discussion with nearly 40 participants. The topic was Away’s recent managerial troubles. But this wasn’t your ordinary forum for discussion. The room was filled with brand founders, engineers, venture capitalists, and HR executives. This allowed for a 360 degree feedback loop in a case study format. The diversity of profession, levels of seniority, and industry moved the group to discuss legitimate causes and effects rather than the sensation of it all.
The clock ticked down in the second quarter of a high school basketball game in Delaware – a middle class, rural area near Columbus, Ohio. The school sits just 29 miles outside of the city’s center, a modest distance but a world of difference. Standing on the bleachers, immediately behind the opposing team’s basket, the hosting school’s 70-80 students in attendance were adorned in pastel Polo shirts, oxfords, short shorts, boat shoes, and backwards caps. Both the young women and men played their parts.
