Ive failed more times than I’ve succeeded. My entrepreneurial journey wasn’t built on viral moments or overnight breakthroughs. It was built on rubble, companies that collapsed, deals that fell through, and partnerships that imploded. Those failures taught me more than any quick win ever could.
But the real lesson came later. It wasn’t about bouncing back once. It was about what happened when I kept showing up, day after day, even when progress felt invisible. That’s when I discovered the most underrated force in business and life: the compound effect.
With the development of social media, we have a universal problem: we see only results, and we want everything yesterday. Rapid transformations elsewhere, and we think, “Why can’t we catch up overnight?” We crave the big leap, the grand announcement, and the sweeping reform that changes everything at once. But that’s not how transformation or any business works.
THE COMPOUND EFFECT
The compound effect is brutally simple: small actions, repeated consistently over time, create exponential results. It’s not glamorous, and it is quite boring. A single workout doesn’t transform your body. One saved euro doesn’t make you wealthy. One productive meeting doesn’t revolutionise your network. But string together hundreds of workouts, thousands of saved euros, and dozens of valuable connections, and suddenly, everything changes.
I learned this the hard way in business. After my third company nearly collapsed, I stopped chasing home runs. Instead, I focused on improving 1% every single day. Better communication with my team. Slightly sharper sales pitches. More disciplined data analysis.
It felt insignificant at first, like rearranging deck chairs.
Then something remarkable happened. After a year, we weren’t just 365% better; we were operating like a spaceship compared to our competitors. That’s the math of compounding: 1.01^365 = 37.8. We became nearly 38 times more effective, while companies chasing dramatic pivots kept starting from zero.
Here’s the kicker: even Harvard students struggle with this concept. Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler showed that humans are naturally wired to undervalue slow, compounding change. We’re biased toward immediate gratification and dramatic gestures. Our brains can’t intuitively grasp exponential growth; it feels linear until suddenly it’s not.
REGIONAL CONTEXT:
Why the Western Balkans Need Stability More Than Speed
This is exactly why the Western Balkans region needs long-term stability. Not stability as stagnation, but stability as the fertile ground where compound effects can work their magic. Every time we reset politically, economically, or institutionally, we restart the clock. We go back to zero. The compound interest we’ve been building? Gone.
Growth doesn’t emerge from chaos. It comes from building systems that work and then letting them run. It comes from trust that accumulates over decades. It comes from businesses that can plan five years ahead because they believe the rules won’t change next month. It comes from people who invest in their futures here, rather than fleeing for stability elsewhere.
My failures taught me patience. They taught me that spectacular collapses make better stories, but quiet persistence makes better outcomes. Every time I rebuilt, I carried forward what I’d learned. The compound effect didn’t reward my brilliance; it rewarded my stubbornness.
This is the mindset shift the Balkans desperately need. Not chasing the next big thing. Not waiting for a saviour or a perfect plan. But stacking small wins, building reliable systems, and trusting the process long enough to let mathematics do its work.
The most powerful force in the universe isn’t revolution: it’s compounding. But it only works if you give it time. And time only works if you have stability.
We don’t need to catch up overnight. We need to start today and keep going for the next decade. That’s how you build something unstoppable.