The Highest Return on Investment can be Invisible

It is very typical to think of money when you hear the word return on investment. You could go as far as imagining a stock doubling, a cryptocurrency exploding through the roof, or a quick cash return on an executed trade. All these and more thoughts are quite correct for such a word, but I have a second thought that there might be some form of return on investment that cannot be seen in the portfolio you guard preciously. It may not even be seen in the financial statements of the companies that you hold their stocks in.

This is when it gets interesting for me: when there is a return on investment that you do not see any monetary return but has an exponential reward far better than instant cash. For instance, think back to when you acquire a new skill, or you get better with your communication skills. After such an acquisition, you get to see your return on investment when you apply such knowledge in real-life scenarios. Furthermore, a better example will be public speaking. If you have a fear of speaking to a crowd, and it is something you have always wanted to be good at, you can get better at it. Ideally, I think it is a skill that should not be underestimated or taken for granted because you never can tell when it would come in handy. So you read books on it, watch lots of videos on it, and even attend events where speakers you admire are speaking. Over time, when you put your knowledge to the test by starting in small groups down to a large one, you will be amazed by how much you can improve at it, and just like that you have gained a skill or, better still, gotten better at one you have always wanted.

The fact that the reward for such investments is quite fleeting, which is why we can often forget to acknowledge it or at all appreciate ourselves for that. Like the example I gave above, you start to see it as less or not important because it is something you can do easily at this point, forgetting that at some point it was difficult. The world at large has tied success to finance, has tied gains to money, and return on investment to how much money you have gotten from the money you invested. This is true, and I will not dispute that, but I want us to remember that other areas of our lives require investments for good returns, and we benefit from the returns significantly.

You have a healthy life; it is because you paid attention to your health. You have a loving family; it comes from investing your time into it for love. The sweet meals, companionship, gist partner, and sense of belonging you get from a person that loves you can be a return on investment for your time invested in strengthening the relationship. Good things need to be nourished and nurtured, and these actions require time. I believe that every good time is a product of time, consistency, and strong will. I do not want to go on and on, but now and then it is also important to know that some returns are not financial, and good things take time.

_{I am @samostically, a chess player and writer. I love to share the experience I have gained from different battles over the 64 squares and the knowledgeable insights from books I have read. But most importantly, I am a Midnight Owl and I founded the community Midnight Letters.}

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