What I’ve learned from Naval on wealth and happiness.

I’ve recently discovered Naval Ravikant thanks to the blog of Mister RIP.
He is an Indian-American entrepreneur and investor. I have enjoyed and learned a lot from his philosophy.

First I listened to his podcast, “How to Get Rich.” It’s a giant format of three hours, regrouping many of his previous episodes.

I started with a mindset of let’s try it and see. Three hours looked too long for me.

But I could not stop.

I was caught by the content, the number of ideas, the deep reflection, and Naval’s direct style.

So I bought his book. Not really his book, but a book that has been created from his ideas. A type of summary of what he has shared on Twitter and his podcasts.

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness. by Eric Jorgenson

What I’ve learned from Naval on wealth and happiness.

The book is divided into three parts.

• Wealth. It’s a summary of the giant podcast. It was beneficial to read as there are so many ideas.
• Happiness
• Naval’s recommendation: books, blogs, influence…

1.Wealth

“So, my definition of wealth is much more businesses and assets that can earn while you sleep.”

Specific knowledge:
It reminds me of the concept of skill stacking by Adams Scott. The idea is to develop your expertise in few areas you are talented and interested in. The combination of these skills is what makes you unique on the market. The more those skills are complex to learn, are gained by experience, reflections, and self-learning, the more valuable they are.

“Specific knowledge cannot be taught, but it can be learned.”

“When I talk about specific knowledge, I mean figure out what you were doing as a kid or teenager almost effortlessly.”

Listening and trying to convince others of my ideas is something I’ve been doing since I was young. My parents struggled to say no to some of my requests (they would say all 😀) as I constructed and built very coherent arguments. So I feel that persuasion and communication are things I have loved to do since I was young.

Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage.

Specific knowledge is knowledge you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else and replace you. Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now.

The specific knowledge of Naval :

I have some sales skills, which is a form of specific knowledge. I have some analytical skills on how to make money. And I have this ability to absorb data, obsess about it, and break it down—that is a specific skill that I have. I also love tinkering with technology. And all of this stuff feels like play to me, but it looks like work to others.

Long term game with long term people

“All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.”

“The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner.”

I love this idea. Self-learning, loving to learn is the key. There is no education good enough that remains valid for your whole life. You need to learn as you go.

Take accountability

There’s not really that much to fear in terms of failure, and so people should take on a lot more accountability than they do.

So what? Even if you failed, you rarely risked your life. Naval defends the idea that it’s worth taking the accountability and the risks.
When he started to go public with his personal philosophy, people around told him that he will lose his entrepreneur’s credibility. He took risks, put his name out. Today his internet popularity has become a big asset.

I often see people thinking too much about risks associated with new opportunities. They often miss the train.

Build or buy equity in a business

If you don’t own a piece of a business, you don’t have a path towards financial freedom.

My way to do it. A lazy and easy one is to enter the market as a long term investor using ETF (exchange traded funds) as a tool.

Leverage

“Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication.”

Code and media are permissionless leverage. They’re the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep.

Reading this blog is the demonstration of the internet permissionless leverage. Everyone can use it.

Run uphill

Take always the most difficult path

short term suffering, long term gain

How do you recognize which path? It’s difficult to start but you always feel better after.

2.Happiness

A calm mind, a fit body and a house full of love. These thinks can not be bought, they need to be earned

Whatever money you have, you can not buy it. The path is the same for everyone. It requires self-reflection, effort, and patience. We all look after it and we are equal in this search.

Happiness is the absence of external desires

I have developed a concept around this idea. I even gave it a small name IG/FG 😀. I have “Infinite Growth” goals for the non-material part of my life (e.g., happiness). I have “Finite Growth” goals for the material, the financial part. Money is just a tool that helps me to live my life on my terms.

Happiness is a decision and a skill

It changes our view and how to behave when we consider it a decision and a skill. We are 100% responsible for it.

Happiness is internal success

Hapinness is an internal activity

You can not compare it. You can not compete with someone else. When you reach it, you won’t take anything to someone else. It’s the opposite of the traditional zero-sum game.

In any situation in life you have three choices, change it, accept it, leave it…

Test it with one of your actual complicated situations and try to apply this idea.

At 40, what advise I would give my 30 years old self?

Seriously, who else can advise you better?

Impatience with actions, patience with results

I’m impatient. I’ve just discovered that it could be helpful in some situations. 😀
Consistency doesn’t reward linearly. It compounds with time and pays exponentially. So be impatient with your actions and patient with the results. (see : How to use impatience to improve the results.)

If you have made it till here, you understood that I loved his ideas and the book. A lot of his messages are touching me. I warmly advise the read.

Have a great day.