The Illness of Impatience
Friend, have you ever wandered through such darkness? “When will I finally be free from this relentless worry about money?” This is a shadowy question that resides in all our hearts.
When we go to bookstores, we are tempted by ’the quickest ways to get rich,’ and when we open social media, stories of people whose lives changed overnight flood in. Each time, a corner of my heart burns with impatience, engulfed by the anxiety of feeling like I’m falling behind.
To you, I want to take a moment to share the story of an old man. He is one of the wealthiest people in the world, yet he appears to be the most relaxed person—Warren Buffett. Can you believe that over 99% of his wealth, which exceeds 130 trillion won, was created after he turned 50, mostly after he turned 65?
What does this mean? Even for the world’s greatest investment genius, wealth is not a sudden ’event’ that comes from a flash of inspiration, but rather the result of a long, tedious process of quietly walking through time.
For a long time, while observing the hearts of those struggling with money issues, I realized one clear fact: our suffering does not begin from a lack of money, but from an inability to ’endure’ time.
Now, let’s embark on a deep and honest journey to understand why our hearts find long-term investing so difficult and how we can turn the greatest giant of time into our ally.
1. The Quietest Magic in the World: Compound Interest
“The effect of compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it earns it; he who doesn’t pays it.” - Albert Einstein (Reported)
This famous saying attributed to Einstein begs the question: why can’t we properly utilize this powerful magic that is right in front of us? The reason is surprisingly simple. Our brains cannot intuitively imagine this magic.
Imagine a small snowball. It has just started rolling down a hill. At first, no matter how hard you push, it hardly grows. Your arms ache, and you wonder, “Is this even going to work?” Most people give up right at this point.
But the miracle begins after enduring that tedious time. Once the snowball surpasses a certain threshold, it starts to grow rapidly with just a few more rolls. This is the magic of compound interest.
Warren Buffett started rolling this snowball at the tender age of ten. His recorded average annual return of just over 20% is not ‘impressive but impossible.’ The truly astonishing part is that he has continued this for over 70 years. He rolled the snowball earlier and longer than anyone else.
This is not a fairy tale. There was a magician like this around us. Do you remember Ronald Read? He was an utterly ordinary man who lived his life as a gas station attendant and a department store janitor. However, when he passed away, he left behind an astonishing inheritance of over 9 billion won, surprising everyone. His secret was simple: for decades, he consistently invested a portion of his salary in good company stocks, watching his snowball roll quietly, whether the market crashed or everyone was celebrating.
The lesson whispered by these two stories is clear. The formula for wealth is not ‘return × time’ but rather ‘return^time (return squared by time).’ The variable of time is a magic wand with far more powerful force than we think.
2. The Strongest Enemy is Within
“I get it, compound interest is important. But why do I check my stock app every ten minutes and feel my hands tremble at the slightest market fluctuation?”
Friend, it’s not because you are peculiar. It’s a perfectly normal reaction. In fact, it’s more difficult not to feel this way. Our brains have been designed to respond immediately to ‘immediate threats’ for hundreds of thousands of years. When a rustle is heard in the distant forest, our ancestors probably didn’t survive by pondering, “Hmm, should I consider my survival chances ten years from now?”
This survival instinct has become the ’enemy within’ that leads us to failure in the modern financial market.
- Present Bias: Our brains love ‘immediate small pleasures’ far more than ‘great happiness in the distant future.’ The temptation of “1 million won right now” feels much stronger than the promise of “100 million won in ten years.” Thus, we easily trade the future’s abundant fruits for a small candy in front of us.
- Loss Aversion: Psychologists have discovered that we feel more than twice the pain of losing money compared to the joy of gaining it. Even a slight drop in stock prices triggers our primitive fear circuits, screaming, “Danger! We must prevent greater losses!” As a result, we lose our rational judgment and panic-sell everything in fear.
- Social Proof and FOMO: When I hear that a friend made a fortune in stocks, a siren in my heart blares, “I’m falling behind!” This instinct is rooted in our primitive past, where following the herd was advantageous for survival. Social media amplifies this instinct, turning us into anxious chasers rather than calm investors.
Ultimately, the most terrifying opponent we must fight in the stock market is not other investors or the capricious market, but our own brain demanding immediate reactions—our ’enemy within.’
3. The Siren’s Song Targeting Your Wallet
The external enemies attacking our primitive brains are becoming increasingly clever and sophisticated. Especially investment apps that have transformed into social media and games are like sweet ‘siren songs’ that gnaw at our patience.
‘Finfluencers’ whisper, showcasing only their flashy returns, “You’d be a fool to miss this opportunity!” But they never share the countless failures or painful losses they endured. We only see their meticulously ’edited success’ and fall into the illusion that we can become like them, diving into dangerous waves.
What about investment apps? Every time you buy a stock, fireworks go off, and they encourage simple button clicks instead of complex analyses—just like mobile games. This is a sophisticated trap that lulls our deep-thinking ‘rational system’ to sleep and stimulates our impulsive ’emotional system’ to trade more frequently. We must not forget that their true purpose is not our long-term asset growth but the commission profits from our frequent trades.
In this noisy world, “staying still” has become a great act requiring more courage and conscious effort than any other action.
4. The Sage’s Prescription: A Map to Tranquility
So how can we overcome all these internal enemies and external temptations and make the magic of time work in our favor? Here are some practical ‘prescriptions’ based on Warren Buffett’s philosophy and behavioral economics.
1. Build a System in Place of Emotion (Automatic Investment) This is the most powerful and certain method. Set up an automatic transfer of a fixed amount from your salary account to your investment account on a predetermined date each month. This fundamentally blocks any emotional interference of ‘Should I buy? Should I wait? Is this the right timing?’ Don’t blame your willpower; create a system that cannot make mistakes. The system will quietly roll the snowball for you.
2. Attach a ‘Schedule’ to Your Money (Distinguish Between Investment and Speculation) Ask yourself honestly, “When do I plan to use this money?” If it’s for a wedding fund or a deposit that you need within 1-2 years, that money should not be in the volatile stock market. It’s closer to ‘speculation’ than ‘investment.’ You should only step into the world of ‘investment’ with money that you can part with for at least 5 years, preferably 10 years. The moment you attach a schedule to your money, you can free yourself from the noise of short-term markets.
3. Consciously Block Your Ears (Information Diet) Stop following daily stock market news, and boldly ‘unfollow’ investment communities or social media accounts that fuel your anxiety. Hiding stock apps deep in your phone’s folders is also a good strategy. Sometimes, the best information can be ’not seeing any information’ at all.
4. Steer Your Own Ship (Focus on What You Can Control) Whether the market will rise or fall tomorrow, or whether the economy will improve or worsen… these are realms of the divine. Pouring energy into things we cannot control is like shouting at the sky to stop the rain. Instead, focus only on what we can completely control: ‘How much to save (savings rate),’ ‘What expectations to have (expected return),’ and ‘How to react (my own emotions).’ Especially increasing your savings rate will lead you to wealth far more reliably than any flashy investment technique.
Conclusion: The Treasure We Truly Seek
Friend, as we conclude this long journey, I want to share one last thought. The ultimate reason we must endure time and engage in long-term investing is not merely to increase the numbers in our accounts. It is to seek the true treasures of ‘freedom’ in life and ’tranquility’ in our hearts.
What meaning does it hold to live a life of daily market fluctuations, losing direction in my life while feeling anxious about others’ successes?
Believing in the power of time and quietly rolling the snowball of compound interest is not just a technique for increasing wealth. It is a process of ‘mind training’ to maintain my center against external noise, uphold my principles in the face of short-term temptations, and learn to trust the process rather than rush for results.
Just as Warren Buffett did, just as janitor Ronald Read did, we can do it too. The courage to choose the most certain path rather than the fastest one. That is the greatest gift time gives us and the only path to true wealth.
Now, let go of impatience, and let’s walk together, hand in hand with time, our most steadfast partner, far and steadily.