Things you buy wear out. Things you build in people keep going.
STILLNESS
WHAT THIS MEANS
Purchases depreciate and taught things do not. A phone has a usable life of a few years, while a skill or a bit of confidence you put into somebody keeps running inside them, and then inside whoever they teach, with no maintenance from you at all. People compound in a way that objects simply cannot.
Spend one hour this week on somebody rather than something: coach a younger player, explain the homework, teach the thing you happen to know. Expect no visible return on it. The return exists, and it turns up in places you will not be standing.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
What have you built into someone that will outlast your stuff?
MORE IN TIME, MORTALITY & LEGACY
- The wristwatch Grandpa wore every day is just a watch to anyone else. To you it’s every day he wore it.
- Retired coworkers rarely say they miss the work. They say they miss the people on break.
- Things you put off “until after graduation” have a way of becoming “until after the next thing” for decades.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.