It is a guide to wealth and happiness as the byline goes and Naval has worked to figure out how. The book is based out of transcripts, tweets and talks by Naval who is a silicon valley icon who founded multiple successful companies and later on became an angel investor who invested in Uber, Twitter etc. Through it all he figured out the right combo of success and happiness. A bit into his life - born in Delhi, Naval and his family consisting of his father, mom, older brother and he moved to USA, Dad didn't get a proper job, left, brought up by single parent. Thanks to that he became self-sufficient and also found himself making friends with a lot of books he found in a library close to his place, got admitted into a good school and then in an Ivy League college and no looking back since.
The first section is about building wealth - which Naval says is a skill. Anyone can become wealthy if they learn the skill of making wealth. Its not about hard work either but about knowing what to do, who with and when. Naval says we first need to find out what we want to work on.
Wealth he says is having assets that earn while you sleep (ethical wealth is possible). He also says that if you secretly despise wealth it will elude you. To gain financial freedom we must own equity - a piece of a business and not earn money by renting out our time.
Give society what it wants but does not know how to get - at scale. Internet has broadened the possible space of careers. All returns come from compound interest - be it in wealth, relationship, knowledge, One must choose partners who are intelligent, have the right energy and integrity (avoid cynics and pessimists). If you learn how to build and sell you are unstoppable.
Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability and leverage. Specific knowledge is knowledge you cannot train for. If society can train you, it can train others. Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion. Its often highly technical or creative.
Enhance accountability and take risks under your own name - you will be rewarded with responsibility, equity and leverage.
Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes form capital, labour and from products with no marginal cost of replication (like code and media). To get capital - to raise money apply your specific knowledge with accountability and show resulting good judgement. Create software and media that works while you sleep.
If you cant code write books, blogs or record videos and podcasts.
Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgement. Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, maths, computers.
Be too busy to 'do coffee; but keep an uncluttered calendar. Set and enforce an aspirational personal hourly rate - ignore stuff that's below it or outsource it.
Become the best in the world at what you do - redefine it until it becomes true. Apply specific knowledge with leverage and you will get what you deserve. Basically Productise Yourself. Productise is also leverage and also specific knowledge. Yourself translates into uniqueness and accountability. So Productise Yourself is what you must remember.
To get wealthy ask - is this authentic to me, is it me I am projecting, am I productising myself, am I scaling it with code or media.
To find specific knowledge figure out what you were doing as a kid or a teenager almost effortlessly (something you didn't consider a skill but others noticed, ask your mom or best friend). No one can be you. Most of our life is a search for who and what needs you the most.
Applied scientists will be the most powerful people in the world. Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your innate talents, your genuine curiosity and your passions. Its at the edge of knowledge. Be 100% into it.
You can find your audience on the net. You can make people genuinely happy just uniquely expressing yourself through the net.
Escape competition through authenticity.
The most important skill for getting rich is to be a perpetual learner. Foundations are key - be it math or languages. Understand compounding - it will help grow wealth, people, reputation, trust. He gives the example of his partner Ehad who always throws in more and makes him really happy.
Intentions don't matter - actions do. Being ethical is bad.
Stick with the right people, the right thing for the long term to get compound interest.
To get rich one must build credibility.
Understand the difference between ownership and wage work. Work upto the point where you can own equity in a business. Real wealth comes from your own business or your investments.
To find a position of leverage - do things for their own sake. When you work for things for their ow sake you do the best work. Do it for the sheer fun of it.
Books, media, movies, code are great forms of leverage in products with no marginal cost of replication. Among these code is the most powerful form of leverage.(He gives the example of Joe Rogan who he says earns 50-100 million through his podcast).
New generation fortunes are all made through code or media which don't need permission. If you're independent and you're accountable for your output - that's the dream.
Forget 10x programmers, there are 1000x programmers.
Get where you can control your time and you're tracked on your outputs.
If you have specific knowledge you have accountability and you have leverage. They have to pay you for what you are worth. Earn with your mind, not your time.
Avoid risk of ruin - jail, health etc. Get paid for your judgement.
Not short term thinking or busy work - spend a year deciding and a day acting.
Value your time at an hourly rate. You will never be worth more than you think you're worth.
No one is going to value you more than you value yourself Set an hourly rate and stick to it. Factor time into every decision.
3 main decision - where you live, who you're with and what you do
Figure out what you're good at and start helping people with it. Find work that feels like play.
When today is complete, in and of itself, you are retired. To retire you either have 1) money saved 2) have low desires 3) do something you love
Hold lifestyle fixed. Value freedom.
People confuse wealth and wisdom.
BUILDING JUDGEMENT
To get rich start on the bleeding edge of trends and study technology, design and art. Become really good at something.
Wisdom is knowing the long term consequences of your actions. Wisdom applied to external problems is judgement.
Clear thinking is a better compliment than smart.
If you can't explain it to a child, you don't know it.
You can make progress only when you're starting with the truth.
What we wish to be true clouds our perception of what is. Suffering is the moment when we can't deny reality anymore.
Its only after you're bored that you have great ideas.
Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. - Buddhist saying
Collect mental models.
Eliminate what's not going to work. Being successful is just about not making mistakes. Avoid incorrect judgements.
Understand the Principal - Agent principle - Make people feel like the Principal or the Owner.
If you cannot decide, the answer is No.
Short term pain, long term gain.
If you read books on science, math, philosophy it will put you in success in 7 years.
HAPPINESS
We pursue wealth, health and happiness in that order. But the reverse is true.
To be happy, don't take yourself too seriously. Happiness is learned. Its a default state - its there when you remove the sense of something missing in your life.
When you have internal silence we are content.
Happiness, love, passion - they are choices.
Happiness requires presence, peace, habits, acceptance. Envy is the enemy of happiness.
Enlightenment is the space between your thoughts. Every desire is chosen unhappiness. Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy unless you get what you want.
Peace is happiness at rest, happiness is peace in action.
Naval's best friend Behzad says wow instead of why.
Naval lists a few happiness habits - working out in the morning, stop caffeine, get sunlight, non judgement, meditate, keep less secrets, pick one big desire and accept all outcomes.
SAVING YOURSELF
Only you can save yourself. Take responsibility for yourself. Do what you want to do. care for yourself.
Cold showers, meditation.
Naval says he has got freedom from - expectations, anger, employment, uncontrolled thinking.
The modern struggle
Lone individuals summoning inhuman will power, fasting, meditating and exercising
Up against armies of scientific and statistical tools weaponising abundant food, science and medicines into junk food, click bait news, infinite porn, endless games and addiction to drugs.
Wisdom is the discarding of vices and the return to virtue by way of knowledge.
....
Picked up all this stuff. Now i will read it again and organise it for easier reading. But surely, good stuff that one can use to become wealthy and happy.
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