The Leverage Equation

For years, I worked harder than everyone around me. More hours. More hustle. More grind.

And I made more money. But I was still trading time for money. Just at a higher rate.

Then I discovered leverage. And everything changed.

Leverage = Output / Input

Simple. Obvious. Profound.

Most people focus on increasing input. Work more hours. Hustle harder. Grind longer.

But there's a ceiling. You can't work more than 24 hours a day. You can't sustain maximum effort indefinitely. You can't scale yourself.

The only way to scale is to increase output per unit of input. That's leverage.

Naval Ravikant identified four types of leverage: Labor, capital, code, and media.

• →Labor leverage is hiring people. You work, they work, output multiplies. But labor is expensive and hard to manage.
• →Capital leverage is using money to make money. You invest, money works, returns compound. But capital requires capital.
• →Code leverage is writing software. You build once, it runs forever, output scales infinitely. But code requires technical skill.
• →Media leverage is creating content. You create once, it reaches millions, influence compounds. But media requires audience.

I use all four. But I optimize for code and media because they scale without permission.

The real power comes from stacking leverage. Using one type of leverage to create another.

I use media leverage (this site, my writing) to attract the right people. Those people become labor leverage (team, partners, customers). That generates capital leverage (revenue, investment). Which funds code leverage (ArmadaOS, infrastructure).

"Each layer amplifies the others. Media attracts labor. Labor generates capital. Capital funds code. Code creates more media. The flywheel spins."

Without leverage: Output = Time × Effort

With leverage: Output = Time × Effort × Leverage

If your leverage is 1x, you're trading time for money. If your leverage is 10x, you're getting 10x output for the same input. If your leverage is 100x, you're operating at a different level entirely.

The difference between 1x and 100x isn't 100x more work. It's different thinking.

Leverage compounds. A 10% improvement in leverage today creates a 10% improvement in all future output.

If you increase your leverage by 10% every month, you don't get 10% better. You get exponentially better.

• Month 1: 1.1x leverage
• Month 6: 1.77x leverage
• Month 12: 3.14x leverage
• Month 24: 9.85x leverage

This is why leverage is the most important concept in business. It's not linear. It's exponential.

AI is the ultimate leverage tool. It's code leverage on steroids.

You can now delegate to AI the way you'd delegate to humans. But AI doesn't sleep. It doesn't take breaks. It doesn't have bad days. It scales infinitely.

The entrepreneurs who figure out how to leverage AI will have 100x leverage over those who don't.

Output = Time × Effort × Leverage × AI

And AI is the biggest leverage multiplier in history.

Stop trading time for money. Start building leverage. Stack it. Compound it. Let it work for you. That's how you go from working in the business to working on the business to having the business work without you.