I learned about “leverage” when I started investing in the stock market around 2017. I couldn’t wrap my head around the meaning of this word. It took me months to understand it. I had questions such as where am I getting this ‘invisible’ money to invest? Who is giving it to me? Is this another “fake internet money” thing?

As my tiny brain grew, I realized that leverage is not just about the money; it is merely a tool. Nothing else. Leverage could be applied anywhere and in any scenario, where it helps one get to a higher/better position in life or create more money or win a particular situation.

To break it down further, leverage can be defined as a tactic to elevate one's position in a scenario to get to a favorable or advantageous position, using ANYTHING to win.

Let me explain with a simple example:

In the old days, humans relied on their feet to walk thousands of kilometers. They toiled under the sun, working on their fields, on their own legs or using animals for their legs. They desperately needed a tool to accelerate work.

Then one fine day, a brainiac invented the wheel by mistake, (the most popular theory is that humans observed fallen tree logs rolling down slopes and they decided to use that as the first wheel,) and changed the course of mankind forever. Nobody knows if that person ever got rich. But that’s not the point.

Here, wheel is the leverage which helped accelerate the human ability to work faster, better, and for a lesser time in the scorching heat. The wheel helped navigate hundreds of kilometers of land within hours, rather than days now.

The point is…

Fast forwarding to 2023, our new age ‘wheel’ is the algorithm sitting right in front of you, on a desk or in your hand right now waiting to be tinkered with. Use the algorithm and you could propel yourself to millions of people at the push of a tiny button.

It may not seem like a big deal, but leverage is what propelled humankind to where it is today.

Leverage is time on steroids.

Only a conscious being is capable of utilizing leverage. I doubt if an inanimate object can use the power of leverage. If you know of any, let me know in the comments.

—

Here’s an illustration to spark your intellectual curiosity this week.

"It’s not the thing itself that upsets you, but your interpretation of it." — Marcus Aurelius