The Leverage Ladder: How to Create More by Doing Less

Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. – Archimedes

Archimedes said that over 2,000 years ago. He was talking about physics. But it applies just as much to work.

Most of us are trying to move the world with our bare hands. We put in more hours, try harder, stretch ourselves thinner, thinking that’s the way to get ahead.

But the real game isn’t just about effort. It’s about leverage.

Leverage is how you turn a small input into a massive output. It’s how one person can create a movement, build a billion-dollar company, or earn while they sleep—while another burns out doing twice the work for a fraction of the results.

There’s a ladder to this. And the higher you climb, the more impact you create for the same—or even less—effort.

Let’s walk through it.

Rung 1: Time-Based Work

My first job was as a barista. I made MYR3.50 an hour. That was less than $1/hour.

Even after a few years of experience, I was earning MYR10 an hour—just enough to afford lunch and a ride home. I took pride in the work, but deep down, I knew something wasn’t scalable. I could show up early, stay late, serve a hundred drinks a day… but the ceiling didn’t budge.

You’re paid by the hour, no matter how much value you create. Because almost anyone can be trained to do it, you’re always replaceable. The job isn’t about you—it’s about the hours you clock in.

At this stage, working harder makes you tired. It rarely makes you rich.

Cal Newport calls this kind of effort "shallow work"—tasks that are easy to replicate and don’t produce much value. Shallow work keeps us busy but rarely moves the needle. Real growth happens when we find ways to do deep, focused work that leads to real leverage.

I’m not saying being a barista is bad. There’s honor in every kind of work. But if you want to build leverage in that field—or any field—you need to play a different game.

Take James Hoffmann, for example. He didn’t stop at brewing coffee. He became a world barista champion, then co-founded a specialty coffee company, wrote a bestselling book, and built a ​YouTube channel​ that now teaches millions about coffee. He productized his knowledge, built an audience, and created a brand.

He’s still in the coffee world—but now, he’s doing it with scale, trust, and freedom.

Rung 2: Skills

Things started to change when I picked up graphic design and web design.

For the first time, I wasn’t charging for hours—I was charging for value. If I helped someone build a landing page that brought in customers, I could price it based on results, not time.

Then I added writing into the mix. Then marketing. And that was the shift. Suddenly, I wasn’t just making things look good—I was helping people sell. And that made the work far more valuable.

Eventually, I landed a job with a U.S. company. Same number of hours. Same laptop. But because of the skills I stacked—and the market I sold them to—it turned into a six-figure opportunity.

It wasn’t just about being good at one thing. It was about combining things in a way few others could.

A study by Fabian Stephany and Ole Teutloff found that skills are worth far more when combined with other complementary skills. A single skill is helpful, but stacked skills multiply your value. Design is useful. Marketing is useful. Combine both—and you create outcomes others can’t easily replicate.

When you get great at something rare or hard to replace, the value you create starts to compound.

Here’s a simple 3-step method to maximize the value of your skills:

1. Get irreplaceably good. Go deep into one craft. Make it so that people come to you, not because you're available, but because you're the one they trust to do it well. In Cal Newport's words, it's about becoming ​so good they can't ignore you​.
2. Stack and combine skills. Pair your core strength with complementary ones. Design + copy. Data + storytelling. Coding + product thinking. Each layer adds exponential value.
3. Put yourself in the right market. Skills don’t pay the same in every market. I earned more selling my skills to U.S. companies, not because I got better overnight, but because I moved upstream to where the rewards were greater.

Rung 3: Product

I still remember launching my first online course. It was a program on productivity, based on what I’d learned from years of experimenting with habits, systems, and mindset. Over 400 students signed up.

It was the first time I truly experienced leverage. I built the course once. But instead of trading my time 1:1, I could share the same content with hundreds of people. My income was no longer tied to my hours.

I didn’t continue it after the first launch. It didn’t make me wealthy. Still, it taught me something far more valuable—how leverage works. That lesson never left me.

Later, I started ​Wolo Yoga​, my own e-commerce brand. Same idea, different format. I wasn’t selling my time or my skills—I was selling a product. One that could reach hundreds or thousands of customers without me needing to be there for every transaction.

Nathan Barry’s story illustrates this well. He started as a freelance designer, then began selling ebooks and online courses. Once he proved there was demand, he built ConvertKit—a SaaS company now making millions in annual revenue. Each step gave him more leverage than the last.

He later wrote about this in an article called ​The Ladder of Wealth Creation​. It’s a powerful mental model that shows how people move from trading time, to creating products, to building systems and investing capital.

But here’s what most people don’t realize: building a product is front-loaded. It takes more effort upfront. You need to design, market, fulfill, and maintain it. There are more moving parts.

Once it works, it scales. Your product becomes the lever—not you.

Rung 4: Capital

The easiest way to use capital as leverage is to invest it. The stock market is the simplest example—you buy shares in other people’s businesses, and over time, your money grows on its own. It’s one of the few paths where your capital works while you do nothing.

But most people don’t realize that capital can also protect you. It’s not just about returns—it’s about options. Capital gives you space. It ​cushions the downside​. It lets you quit a bad job, walk away from a bad deal, or take a bold bet on yourself.

Start lean. Test the waters. Refine your offer. And only when something is working—when it’s proven—should you use capital to pour fuel on the fire. That’s when capital can be used to scale what already works.

My biggest mistake? Waiting too long. I kept trying to stretch time, trying to do it all myself. I should have used capital sooner—to buy speed, to buy help, to buy back my energy. That delay cost me time I can’t get back.

Capital helps you speed things up. You can run paid ads to scale faster. Hire help to offload tasks. Stock inventory in advance to avoid delays. It also helps you buy back your time, so you can shift your energy to higher-leverage decisions.

Used well, capital ​turns traction into momentum​. It lets you shift gears without burning out.

You can use your own capital or other people’s money. The key is knowing what to invest in—and when. Because that’s what capital really is: not just cash, but a decision. A way to allocate resources toward better outcomes.

Unlike time, knowledge, or even products, capital can operate on its own. That’s what makes it such a powerful lever.

Rung 5: Audience

Kevin Kelly wrote a famous essay called ​1,000 True Fans​. His idea was simple:

If you have 1,000 people who truly believe in your work and are willing to support you, you can make a living as a creator.

You don’t need to go viral—you need to build trust.

An audience is the final—and most powerful—form of leverage. Why? Because when people trust you, they listen. When they listen, they buy. And when they buy, they’ll often buy again.

You don’t need millions of followers. You need the right people, paying attention, and believing that you can help them.

This is how one influencer can launch a new skincare line and sell out in a day. Or how a tiny newsletter can turn into a million-dollar business.

And it’s not just individuals—brands do this too. Apple, Patagonia, and Nike all have loyal audiences who buy not just because of the product specs, but because of what the brand stands for. Their audience believes in their values. That trust turns into lasting demand.

Audience is attention + trust. And once you have it, you can create new products, test new ideas, and build in public. You have optionality.

If you’re starting from scratch, here are three ways to build an audience:

1. Pick your people. Don’t try to appeal to everyone. Choose a niche you care about, and stand for what your audience believes in.
2. Build and teach in public. Share your process as you learn, build, and grow. People follow momentum and value honesty over polish.
3. Be interesting and unique. Inject your perspective, your style, your voice. Make your work feel like something only you could have created.

Climbing the Ladder

Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable. – Naval Ravikant

Naval calls it “productizing yourself.” You turn your skills, your ideas, your values into something that lives beyond your time. You stop chasing opportunities and start attracting them.

Climbing the leverage ladder isn’t just about tactics—it’s a mindset shift.

You stop living hour-to-hour. You begin thinking in systems, compounding, and momentum. You trade hustle for design. Control for trust.

Eventually, you realize that leverage isn’t just how you scale income—it’s how you scale yourself. Leverage makes room for deep work, creative freedom, and rest. It changes how you make decisions: not from constraint, but from capacity.

Each rung brings more freedom, impact, and resilience. ​Start small​. ​Start now​. Keep moving. Build with intention.

Leverage rewards the long game. So start climbing.