ENTREPRENEURSHIP | SELF-IMPROVEMENT
5 Quotes on Wealth and Self-improvement from a Book I Just Can’t Stop Talking About
The book that’s impacted me more than any other.
If you don’t know, let me tell you I’m a big fan of Naval Ravikant. Fan of wisdom and perspective of Naval Ravikant.
And I can’t stop talking about it. And I think this book deserves this all and more.
One more reason I love this book so much is because it has been created as a public service. It is available for free download in PDF and e-reader version on its website.
Who is Naval?
Naval is an Indian-American entrepreneur and investor with no bio and 1.6M+ followers on Twitter. He is the founder of AngelList, Epinions, and Vast.com and was an early investor in companies like Twitter, Uber, Notion, Clubhouse, and Postmates among others.
Apart from these credentials, he’s also a deep-thinker and his wisdom around wealth creation, judgement, hapiness, spirituality and philosophy is what makes me fan of him.
Below is one more article that I wrote on this book. You can give it a read too.
1. Technology democratizes consumption but consolidates production. The best person in the world at anything gets to do it for everyone.
This one depicts the reality of our times so well. Now the best Physics teacher can teach physics to virtually everyone. Same is the case with best comedian, dancer or any other artist for instance. Same can be the case with a writer of a specific niché, don’t you think?
What we need to make out of this is that we should be a creator in the things we want to pursue. If you want to be a writer, for instance, be a digital writer, as Nicolas Cole puts it—practice in public; thrive on feedback; use digital platforms to leverage its reach.
2. Embrace accountability and take risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity and leverage.
Taking risk means taking calculated risk.
Taking risk means solving problems via iteration. The first time you try, you may not succeed. But you’ve calculated—plus you have that intuition—that you definitely can make it (calculated risk), then pursuing it is nothing but taking risk.
You take accountability of your actions, and then you’re given the tag of responsible by the society. And that’s the leverage of 21st century—trust.
3. Forty hour work weeks are a relic of the Industrial Age. Knowledge workers function like atheletes—train and sprint, then rest and reassess.
Earning with your time will give you linear returns. But if you earn with your mind, you’ll reap the benefits of compound interest—exponential growth.
It’s not Industrial Age anymore, as Naval wants to put it.
Invest your time in building assets and upskilling instead of renting it. Invest where there is some kind of leverage. Only if there isn’t, then trade your time only to build it. For instance:
No audience? Write. Freelance (kind of trading time for money). Build an audience. Leverage that.
4. Wealth creation is an evolutionary recent positive-sum game. Status is an old zero-sum game. Those attacking wealth creation are often just seeking status.
First of all, read that twice.
Zero-sum game = If one wins then the other looses
Positive-sum game = If one wins, the other can also win
Wealth creation is a positive-sum game. That means if you’re becoming wealthy, that will, by no means, affect if I will be able to become wealthy.
On the other hand, status games are zero-sum games. For one to win someone has to lose.
And we’ve all seen how people try to attack one who is wealthy by generalizing them as corrupt, evil, or simply by being envious of their success. Those are the one playing status games.
The 5th one is this epic thread on getting rich without getting lucky. Read it and I guarantee you’ll not regret.
I can go on forever if the topic involves Naval Ravikant. But let’s save some topics for other days.
If the above points caught your interest, then you may want to read The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant. Read (or download) it absolutely free of cost from the book’s official website here.
Until next time, bye! ❤️☺️
