While taking an unannounced and unplanned blog break–leaving millions of loyal impersonal readers in the lurch–this very site has shown me a small example of the power of compound work. Not unlike compound interest, the value of compound work can be almost miraculous. And for bloggers and side hustlers with more discipline and work ethic than myself, it truly is.

Compounding for dummies

Albert Einstein, in what is surely a misattribution given the lack of reliable sourcing, is purported by the internet to have said:

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.”

The same wonders apply to the power of compound work. After about a year of consistent blogging–both an eternity and a blip–in which I worked hard to cultivate a small following and generate steady traffic, I pulled a Forrest Gump and just stopped running. But with compounding, the value of having done becomes more important than that of actively doing.

However marginal the quality and quantity of the content I left in my wake, it was enough to earn me a few friendly links from fellow bloggers in the FIRE community, and some Google traffic to boot. Though I stopped writing for a period of time, my previous work on this enterprise unexpectedly continued to pay off. In fact, the traffic on the site, and small amount of Adsense revenue, have taken only a small dip since my last post in late August. That’s the value of compound work. It’s also the reason blogging is a popular choice for creating passive income seemingly out of thin air.

Earning passive income from blogging

Similar to the power of compound work, James Clear talks in Atomic Habits about how the formation of certain habits can compound either in your favor or against you. Developing relationships, gaining knowledge and being productive are examples of actions that can compound to yield great results over time. But as Clear says, those results are often delayed. This delay causes many to abandon a new exercise program, or say, personal finance blog, before the results of the work become apparent.

The beauty of blogging is that instead of immediately gaining weight after a failed diet, the results of my previous efforts remain. In my case, it was only after I stopped writing for a while that I realized how little traffic I gain immediately from new posts. Without a new post–like this one–traffic will eventually fall of a cliff entirely (a result of the ninth wonder of the world, search engine optimization). In the meantime, I was able to sustain relatively respectable traffic levels during a brief absence.

Don’t get me wrong, I barely make any money from this site. But I have come to expect a check from my new bosses at Google every couple months (the minimum Adsense payment threshold is $100). You can see how a site with a much larger runway of time and effort can start to pay dividends years down the road.

The value of compound work in a career

All of that aside, don’t dismiss the process of doing the work itself–whatever work that is. Compound work doesn’t just apply to side hustles.

You may not always think of it in these terms, but every career is built on the value of compound work. As you progress through your job, you gain institutional knowledge and experience that not only benefits you in your current role, but also qualifies you for more responsibility. Your new responsibilities, knowledge and experience will continue to beget more of the same. Before you know it, you may realize you’ve climbed the corporate ladder simply by showing up and doing the work every day.

Everything compounds

I can look blog income as a metric of success with this side project, but the real value in blogging is in writing. The real power of compound work is in improving upon a skill that translates to any profession. As a quote unquote blogger, I’m learning about SEO optimization, HTML (kind of) and am being exposed to new ideas and opinions. My interest in personal finance leads to an interest in traditional finance, while veering off on all sorts of NFT and crypto rabbit holes along the way. And it all compounds. Work, knowledge, habits, experience, money–they all compound. The key is to stick with it.

Even if you take a few months off now and again.