The Power of Compounding demonstrated using a ChessBoard

I have read this story from a certain book about investing but can't remember the exact title. I am reproducing the story here to the best of my ability to recollect it in the hope of driving at how powerful is compounding especially if it is applied in monetary terms and also in other aspects of life.

A long time ago, in old China, a wise man had done the King a great favor. So in front of so many people which includes those closest to the King and all his advisers, the King told the wise man that he can ask whatever he wants as his prize.

The wise man then asked that he wants rice as his reward, and that for the first square on the chessboard he wants one grain of rice given to him and doubled for each succeeding squares.

The people around him laughed thinking that his request is so easy go give. So the King signal his assistant to give what the man wants.

The King's assistant goes to the kitchen and when he returned he brought a small container containing grains of rice. The wise man smiled at what he saw.

The Assistant started putting the grain of rice on the chessboard, one grain on the first square on the first row, and doubling the grains for every square. People around chuckled and laugh but alas on the second row the rice grains started to pile up and what the assistant brought in a small container was not enough. The laughter and chuckled was now changed into awe.

And that is just the second row of squares on the chessboard.

The KING seeing that what the wise man asked is not that simple to grant called on his mathematicians and told them to compute how much he really owes the wise man.

The mathematicians after discussing among themselves told the KING that not even all the rice grains in China and even the world would be enough to pay the wise man.

The KING realizing his mistake approached the wise man and told him that he had made a mistake and offered him vast riches in China if only he would release him from his word. The wise man accepted and he became rich and the King was happy to be released from his word.

If we are to convert a grain of rice as 1 Dollar, how much does the King really owe the wise man. Indeed the King cannot pay the wise man, on the 64th square alone the King is indebted by his word in the amount of 9,223,372,036,854,780,000 and you have to add up the other squares.

On the 24th square alone, the King already owes the wise man 8,388,608. Try doing it on your MS Excel. Create two columns, the first column is the square number (1 to 64 representing the squares on the chessboard), and the second column the amount.

On the cell adjacent to the square number under the amount column, encode 1 on the first row and multiply it by 2 on the succeeding cell below it. Copy the formula up to the 64th square and you will see the power of compounding. Apply this in your hubpages monetization efforts and you will become rich.

Just strive to double your earnings with the Hubpages revenue program every week and on the 64th week (just 1 year and 3 months) and you will get outstanding results.