Naval Ravikant is an entrepreneur, investor, and thought leader in the technology industry. He was born on May 9, 1974, in New Delhi, India, and later moved to the United States. Naval is best known for his insights on startups, investing, and personal development, which he shares through various mediums, including interviews, podcasts, and social media.
Naval co-founded Epinions, a consumer review platform, in 1999, which went public in 1999 and later merged with Shopping.com. He has also been involved with several other startups, including Vast.com, which is a data mining and comparison shopping platform.
In addition to his entrepreneurial ventures, Naval Ravikant is widely recognized for his philosophical and pragmatic views on life and success. He has gained a significant following on platforms like Twitter, where he shares his thoughts on topics such as happiness, wealth creation, decision-making, and mindfulness.
Naval has been featured as a guest on various podcasts and has appeared in numerous interviews, where he discusses entrepreneurship, investing, and personal growth. His ideas on wealth creation, achieving happiness, and finding meaning in life have resonated with many people, earning him a reputation as a prominent thinker and commentator in the tech and startup communities.
Association brings on assimilation. Be around the best, whether it be in mentors, coaches, colleagues, friends, etc, and you can’t help but become better through their actions, attitudes, behaviors. Naval is one of the top 5 people that I’ve read about that I’ve gained immense wisdom from and changed behavior, values, attitude for the better. Here are the notes I’ve gathered from the book The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, originally written by Eric Jorgensen. It covers health, wealth, happiness, life principles, meditation, and a myriad of other topics and insights gained by Naval over the years.
Since listening to Naval’s advice and implementing it, I have become happier, calmer mind via less mental stimulation and meditation, re-reading previous good books and at a slower pace, exercising everyday and cold showers which has led to never being sick in the last 5 years. I share the plethora of notes I took and hope you may find some value behind it.
Characteristics of Naval Ravikant
-super candid. No need to guess how he feels about you, or what he thinks of a situation. You just have to ask.
-questions nearly everything
-thinks from first principles
-tests things well
-good at not fooling himself
-changes his mind regularly
-laughs a lot
-thinks holistically
-thinks long-term
-doesn’t take himself seriously
It seems like success does not lead to happiness, but rather happiness leads to success. Or that happiness must come from within and not depend on external attachments; the Buddhists recommend detachment.
How to get rich without getting lucky
-Making money is not a thing you do — it’s a skill you learn
-Figure out what to work in, who to work with, and when to do it. Working hard comes only after thinking. Otherwise, it is working hard on meaningless activities
-Success is not reached overnight. It takes a minimum of 10 years to get what you want. Patience is a key virtue accordingly
-Find something where the inputs don’t match the outputs
-seek wealth, not money or status
Wealth: assets that earn while you sleep
Money: transferring time and wealth
Status: social hierarchy
-Ethical wealth creation is possible. If you despise wealth, it eludes you
-Pay no mind to those who partake in status-driven competitions. They attain their status by targeting individuals engaged in the pursuit of wealth creation
-you don’t get rich renting out your time. Need to own equity, pieces of businesses, to gain financial freedom
-get rich by giving society what it wants but doesn’t know it wants yet, with scale
-pick industries to play long term games with long term people
-internet leads to more possibilities
-Engage in repetitive games; every gain in life stems from the power of compound interest
-Select business collaborators who possess exceptional intelligence, unwavering energy, and unwavering integrity
-don’t partner with cynics, critics or pessimists. Their beliefs are self-fulfilling
-learn to sell and build. Both is great
-get specific knowledge, accountability, leverage
-Acquiring specialized knowledge isn’t something that can be taught; if society has the ability to educate you, it also possesses the ability to educate another person and take your place
-Specialized knowledge is discovered when you follow your authentic curiosity and passion, rather than chasing whatever happens to be trendy at the moment
-building specific knowledge feels like play to you but looks like work to others
-When it comes to imparting specialized knowledge, the method typically employed is through apprenticeships, not traditional schooling
-specific knowledge often is highly technical or creative, can’t be outsourced or automated
-Embrace responsibility and undertake entrepreneurial risks in your own name. In return, society grants you accountability, ownership, and the potential for leverage
-Provide me with a sufficiently long lever and a stable position, and I will be capable of moving the entire Earth; Archimedes
-fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, products without marginal cost of replication (code and media)
-capital is money; show good judgment to raise it
-labor leverage impresses, but don’t waste life chasing this
-capital and labor are permissioned leverage
-code and media are permissionless leverage; the new rich do this
-army of robots are freely available. In data centres for heat and space efficiency. Use them
-if you can’t code, write books, blogs, record videos, podcasts
-Leverage amplifies the effectiveness of your judgment
-Exercising good judgment demands experience, yet its development can be accelerated by acquiring fundamental skills
-There isn’t a single skill labeled “business.” Steer clear of business magazines and business courses
-Engage in the study of microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers
-Reading is a quicker process compared to listening
-Taking action is more efficient than merely observing
-Your schedule should be filled with meaningful tasks, leaving no room for casual coffee meetings, while maintaining a clear and organized calendar
-Establish and uphold a personal hourly rate that reflects your aspirations. If resolving an issue will result in savings lower than your hourly rate, disregard it. Similarly, if delegating a task will be more cost-effective than your hourly rate, consider outsourcing it
-Exert maximum effort in your endeavors. However, remember that the individuals you collaborate with and the projects you engage in hold greater significance than the intensity of your work.
-Strive to excel in your field to the point of being the best worldwide. Continuously reshape your role until this becomes a reality
-Quick paths to wealth don’t truly exist. Such schemes often result in others profiting at your expense
-Utilize your specialized knowledge in conjunction with leverage, and over time, you will attain the outcomes that align with your efforts
-Upon achieving wealth, you’ll come to understand that it wasn’t your initial pursuit. However, that’s a topic for another time.
Summary: productize yourself
-if you’re not 100% into it, someone who is will outperform mightily
-escape competition through individual authenticity.
-achieve mastery in one or two things to get what you want out of life, not by spreading thin. It’s usually things you’re obsessed about.
-play to your natural strengths
-become an expert in a brand-new field and spend 9–12 months to understand it before it becomes obsolete in a few years, rather than stopping learning; perpetual learning is now more important due to the pace of change
-play long term games with long term people
-You seek someone who will go out of their way to support you and acknowledge your contributions more generously than warranted. These are the type of compounding relationships you want. Elad Gil does this according to Naval
-when you work with someone for five years and still enjoy working with them, that means you trust them
-intentions don’t matter; actions do. That’s why being ethical is hard
-99% of effort is wasted; only 1% matters. For example, for classes, books, activities, dating, friends, other languages, musical instruments not played anymore, etc.
In dating, the moment you know this relationship will not lead to marriage, move on
What you’re trying to do is to find the 1% of things you can go all-in on to permanently earn compound interest in (relationships, work, learning, skills, etc)
-intentions don’t matter, actions do
-need clear accountability, for both the rewards and failure
-people are hardwired not to fail in public. But its good to risk it publicly with potential for benefits
-people should take on more accountability, not less
-if you don’t own pieces of businesses, you don’t have a path towards financial freedom. Own equity, not debt
-find a position of leverage
-follow your intellectual curiosity, not what’s making money right now. Hobbies around your intellectual curiosities are more likely to develop into passions
-if it entertains me now but will bore me someday, keep moving, it’s a distraction
-do things for its own sake. Not another motive
-the less you want something, the less you’re thinking about it, the less you’re obsessing over it, the more you’re going to do it in a natural way. The more you do it for yourself, You will approach it in a manner that aligns with your strengths, and you’ll remain committed to it. Those around you will recognize the elevated caliber of your work
-if someone can train someone else to do what you do, you can be replaced and therefore not paid a lot
-Labor as leverage is difficult to manage others; money is a good form of leverage. Products with no marginal cost of replication is the most powerful, permission free. The new world is about leveraged vs un-leveraged. After getting your life to move towards more leverage, it is then about getting good judgment. The output can then accelerate without your input. This will lead you to be in control of your time.
Traditional forty-hour work weeks are remnants of the Industrial Age. Knowledge workers operate akin to athletes: they train intensively, then exert effort and recuperate while evaluating their performance. Customer service inputs and outputs are connected; real estate agent is not. Creative jobs are not either. Sell or build.
-earn with your mind, not with your time. General labor is the worst; easily replaceable, accountable to boss not client
General labor, then contractor, then housing developer, then real estate fund manager. More risk, accountability, leverage, specific knowledge
Avoid big losses: total financially catastrophic loss, physical health ruin, jail. Don’t gamble all in one go. Instead, take rationally optimistic bets with big upsides.
-earning with time is sequential, earning with mind is exponential
-judgment with a clear track record and accountability is critical
-We often squander our time on short-term perspectives and unproductive tasks. Warren Buffett, on the other hand, invests a year in making decisions and only a day in executing them.
-Navals first fortune was lost in the stock market; second time by business partners, third time was a charm
-value your time at a high hourly rate and spend to save time at that rate, such as $500 per hour
-avoid the relative mindset: comparing against others will lead to feelings of hatred, jealousy, envy. People are wired to feel your deep down feelings about them; and they will feel your bad judgments of them. Be optimistic, positive, it does better in the long run
-the business world has many people playing zero sum games and a few playing positive sum games searching for each other in the crowd
-two games people play; money games and status games. All people want money, few believe they can make the money. So, they attack making money being evil. But people who do this are playing the status game by trying to say they don’t need money.
Wealth creation is now positive sum game, status is an old zero sum game; there can only be one first place winner. Politics is a status game, sports too. Avoid those games, or makes you an angry, combative person, fighting to put other people down.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
What should young people focus on? On the big decisions, where you live, who you’re with, and what you do.
-We invest minimal time in selecting our relationships, yet we allocate an excessive amount of time to our jobs, often neglecting the process of choosing the right one.
-one should spend 1 to 2 years deciding what city to live in for 10 years, what job for 5 years, what relationship for 10 years. These decisions really matter, free up your time to first solve these problems and spend a lot of time on those ones.
-how to surround yourself with successful people? Find what you’re good at, and help other people with it. Give it away. Karma works because people are consistent. On a longer time scale, you attract what you project. But don’t measure it or track it, your patience will run out if you count.
-an old boss told Naval: you’ll never be rich since you’re obviously smart, and someone will always offer you a job that’s just good enough.
-social games, money games, status games; These are situations where the result loses its significance once you comprehend the underlying dynamics. He is at the stage where he is just tired of games.
-Retirement signifies the end of forfeiting today for an envisioned tomorrow; make a lot of money or spend less, or doing something you love where it’s not about the money. His work seems like play to him to start new businesses so he does it all the time for that reason.
-the lust of money is bad for you personally; you always think about money and this desire doesn’t turn off at some number, that is a fallacy. The punishment for the love of money is delivered at the same time as the money; more paranoid and fearful of loss. Avoid the love of money by not upgrading your lifestyle as you make more money.
-his number 1 value is freedom, which money can buy.
-In any competition, the victors are those who are so deeply committed that they persist in playing, even as the diminishing returns of winning become apparent
Ways to get lucky:
-hope luck finds you
-hustle until you stumble into it
-prepare the kind and be sensitive to what others miss
-character becomes your destiny
-In the context of a prolonged endeavor, it appears that everyone contributes to each other’s prosperity. And in a short-term game, it seems everybody is making themselves rich
-thinks business networking is a complete waste of time
-if someone is talking about how honest or great they are, or their own values or promoting themselves, they are covering for something
-self-esteem is related to morality. No self-esteem leads to lack of self-love and love from others
-someone who doesn’t know their own weaknesses has a dangerous lack of self-awareness. Avoid those who don’t have self-awareness and those who do not live in reality.
-distance yourself and then cut out of your life people who don’t have good values. You can warn or mention it once but according to Naval, nobody changes. So better to just slowly keep a distance or burn bridges.
-most common advice: “you’re too young”; most of history is built by young people, and given credit when old
-Human behavior displays a curious consistency. Karma essentially reflects your continuous repetition of patterns, virtues, and imperfections until you ultimately receive what you merit. Always pay it forward, and don’t keep count. Hard to do but rewarding
-look at kids born rich — they have no meaning in their lives
-to make money one becomes high in anxiety, stress, hard work, competitive person. Then learn how to be happy when your time is given back to you.
-It’s quite remarkable how frequently people mistake wealth for wisdom
Building judgment
-there’s no shortcut to smart
-Becoming wealthy doesn’t come from dedicating your time to economizing expenses. It comes from investing your time to generate income.
-hard work is overrated in the modern economy; judgment is underrated
-Judgment entails understanding the enduring outcomes of your actions, much like wisdom
-without hard work, you’ll develop neither judgment or leverage. Judgment is more important than leverage. Judgment is the right direction, leverage amplified it.
-deal in reality when making decisions by not having a strong sense of self or judgment. Reduce ego to see truth and reality easier. What we wish to be true clouds our perception of the truth. Suffering occurs when we can no longer deny reality.
-Your emotions provide insight into your perception of the facts, not the facts themselves
-have 1–2 days per week where nothing is scheduled; this allows for boredom and thinking, and great ideas to pop up
-Highly intelligent peoples often exhibit unconventional behavior because they insist on thoroughly analyzing everything independently
-a contrarian isn’t one who objects — they try to reason from ground up and resist conformity
-cynicism is easy. Mimicry is easy. Optimistic contrarians are the rarest breed.
-any belief you took in a package (religion, politics, etc) is suspect and should get evaluated from base principles
-to be honest, speak without identity
-do not have a fixed identity or mindset
-self-serving conclusions should have a higher bar
-Most shortcuts serve as efficient time-saving techniques. When making significant choices, set aside past experiences and personal biases, directing your attention solely on the problem at hand
-the more you know, the less you diversify
-have mental models rather than just memorizing stuff
-evolution mental model: many sperm and few eggs. The purpose of civilization is to address the question of who is allowed to reproduce.
-inversion: invert and avoid bad outcomes
-complexity theory: things are complicated
-economics: understand the tenets of capitalism
-principal agent problem. Be the principal.
-important decisions should be a strong yes, otherwise if cannot decide the answer is no
-short term pain, long term gain
-reading science, math, philosophy or otherwise 1 hour per day will put you at the upper echelon within 7 years. Reading a lot is the most efficient way to build new mental models
-the genuine love of reading itself, when cultivated, is a superpower
-The avenues for learning are plentiful, yet the eagerness to learn is in short supply
-read just the best 100 books again and again; read the ones that speak to you
-reading isn’t a race; the better the book, the slower it should be read
-The quantity of books finished is a superficial measure. As your knowledge expands, you’ll leave more books unfinished. Prioritize novel concepts that offer predictive capabilities
-if someone wrote it to make money, don’t read it
-your foundation is critical; a bad foundation of bad books (there are many) leads you to using your foundation to judge others and do life with the wrong foundation. Start with the originals, like Adam Smith
-the older the problem, the older the solution (values, family, keeping healthy)
-the newer the problem, the newer the solution (technology related)
-A serene mind, a healthy physique, and a home filled with love are not commodities to be purchased; they are rewards that must be earned.
Part 2; happiness
-The trio of major life priorities includes wealth, health, and happiness. While we initially chase them in that sequence, their significance is actually reversed
Learning happiness
-Avoid taking yourself overly seriously. You’re essentially a primate with a strategy
-Perhaps happiness isn’t something you inherit or solely select; rather, it’s a deeply personal skill that can be cultivated, much like physical fitness or dietary habits
-happiness is the state when nothing is missing; internal silence
-Tao Te Ching: every positive thought contains a negative thought. E.g. if someone is attractive then someone else is unattractive. You have to view the negative before being able to appreciate the positive. The absence of desire for external things, being able to be present rather than thinking too much about the future or the past
-if you ever want peace in your life, you must move beyond good and evil
-the world reflects your own feelings back at you
-there are no external forces affecting your emotions, as much as it may feel that way
-if you have no expectation for how your life should be or go then that will increase happiness; removing ego and expectation
-happiness is a choice; choose happiness
-a neutral state is not a bland existence; this is how children live and they are happy, in the moment with no personal preferences or desires
-One can experience happiness as long as they avoid becoming overly entangled in their own thoughts
-our lives are a blink of a firefly in the night; every second of life is precious. It’s your own responsibility to be happy and interpret everything in the best possible way
-meditation only helps a little; it’s better than doing nothing
-when actual mental or emotional suffering arrives, it’s never easy
-real happiness only comes as a side effect of peace; acceptance, not from changing your external environment
-Achievement isn’t the foundation of happiness; rather, happiness serves as the cornerstone of success
-A rational individual can attain inner tranquility by nurturing a sense of detachment from matters beyond their influence.
-I’ve humbled myself
-I’ve reduced the constant chatter in my mind
-I’m indifferent to things that hold little genuine significance
-I refrain from participating in political matters
-I avoid spending time with individuals who are consistently unhappy
-I hold my time on this planet in high regard
-I read philosophy
-I meditate
-I hang around happy people
-and that all works
-so, it is possible to slowly improve your baseline happiness, just like you can improve your fitness
-happiness, love and passion aren’t things you find, they are choices you make
-we spend so much of our time trying to change others and the world and so little changing ourselves
-the voice in our head is not the all-knowing truth
-memory and burdens of the past prevent us from freely living in the present
-a small percent of the time our brain is focused on the present; it’s mostly on regretting the past or planning the future
-You can genuinely undermine your happiness by dedicating all your time to dwelling in unrealistic visions of the future
-We desire experiences that help us be in the moment, yet the very cravings divert us away from the present
-I don’t believe in anything of my past. No memories, no regrets, no people, no trips, nothing. Feelings of unhappiness arise when we contrast things from the past with the present
-Anticipating our indulgences draws us into the future, while eliminating these indulgences facilitates being in the present
-enlightenment is the space between your thoughts. It doesn’t come from 30 years sitting on a mountain top. You can be enlightened every day
-Consider the possibility that this life is the paradise we were assured, and we’re simply wasting its potential?
-doesn’t think peace and purpose go together; internal purpose can be happy, but external purpose cannot
-most people have low level anxiety; the next thing and the next thing
-someone who is happy isn’t happy all the time, joyful or bliss; it is someone who interprets life in a way that they don’t lose their inner peace
-every desire is a chosen unhappiness; they are external (Buddhism). You will not be happy because of an external circumstance. Looking outside yourself for anything is the fundamental delusion. You should do things as we are meant to do something. It’s just that changing something externally will not improve internal happiness; this is a fundamental delusion, that there is something out there that will make me happy and fulfilled forever
-I’ll be happy when I get that thing is a mistake in thinking
-choose desires carefully; try not to have more than one big desire in life at any given time
-perfect your desires rather than try to do something you don’t 100 percent desire
-by the time people realize they have enough money, they’ve lost their time and their health
-Achieving success doesn’t automatically bring happiness. True happiness comes from contentment with what you possess. Success comes from dissatisfaction. Choose.
-happiness is both internal and external
-people try to achieve peace through war
-If you possess a peaceful disposition, any action you undertake will be imbued with happiness
-The adversary of inner tranquility is the expectations instilled in you by society and others. This includes going to workout, looking good, all external. Happiness is a single-player game, completely internal
-we are social creatures to be externally programmed and driven. In reality, life is a single-player game. You’re born alone, die alone, and interpretations are yours alone, memories alone
-all the real scorecards are internal
-During work, align yourself with individuals who have achieved greater success than you. During leisure, seek companions who radiate more happiness than you
-build the skill of happiness by building good habits. Not drinking, eating sugar, using social media, makes your mood more stable. Playing video games in the short term is happiness, long run can ruin your happiness. Due to dopamine and dopamine withdrawal in little uncontrollable ways. Caffeine also trades long term for short term.
-you are a combination of your habits, the books you read and the people you spend the most time with
-choose habits that lead to long term happiness rather than short term happiness
-choose people that are positive, upbeat, believe they can succeed, low-maintenance, that you admire and respect, but don’t envy
-politically incorrect to say, but choose your friends very wisely
-the first rule of handling conflict: don’t hang around people who constantly engage in conflict. No interest in anything unsustainable or difficult to sustain, including difficult relationships
-if you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day
-have gratitude, we are given so much
-happiness habits:
-insight meditation, looking on the positive side, more sunlight, smiling, this too shall pass, peace of body (exercise), less judging. Judging makes you feel good in the moment but later makes you feel lonely as you see negativity everywhere. The world reflects your own feelings back at you.
-by telling people you’re happy, you unconsciously move in that direction
-recover time by minimizing use of phone, calendar, alarm clock
-the more secrets you have, the less happy you’re going to be
-in a funk, choose meditation, music or exercise to reset mood then commit to a new emotional path for the rest of the day
-The phenomenon of hedonic adaptation is more pronounced in relation to human-made possessions and creations (cars, house, clothes, money) than for natural things (food, sex, exercise)
-Engaging in screen-related activities is associated with reduced happiness, while partaking in non-screen activities is linked to increased happiness
-a personal metric: how much is the day doing things out of obligation rather than out of interest?
-politics, academia, social status are zero-sum games and create negative people. -Positive sum games create positive people
-Elevate serotonin levels in the brain naturally: exposure to sunlight, regular exercise, fostering positive thoughts, and consuming tryptophan-rich foods
-develop good habits
-first you know it. Then you understand it. Then you can explain it. Then you feel it. Then you are it.
-find happiness in acceptance. Wanting change is desire (suffer until result gets there). Pick one hard desire to focus on at a time.
-learning to accept things you can’t change by embracing death
-there is no legacy, we will all be wiped out.
-have a great time, be happy, time is short here. Enjoy yourself, do something positive, give love, make others happy, laugh, appreciate the moment. And do your work.
Easy choices — hard life
Hard choices — easy life
Rich people do hard things, that’s why they have an easy live. Poor people do easy things, that’s why they have a hard life.
-be yourself and ignore everything else. Your goal in life is to find the people, business, project, or art that needs you the most. Don’t be somebody else.
-your most important priority is your own health: mental, physical, spiritual
-our modern society is sick, everything how we live is wrong
-we evolved for scarcity but live in abundance. So we say yes to everything: sugar, relationships, alcohol, drugs, etc
-When illness affects everyone, it ceases to be perceived as a disease
-having sugar and fat together is not a sensible diet
-the harder the workout, the easier the day
-I don’t have time is saying it’s not a priority
-naval starts every day off with exercise in the morning
-easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life is also true of relationships
-Allocating uninterrupted and solitary time for introspection helps resolve lingering issues and transforms our mental state from sluggish to sharp
-meditation to quiet the mind and judgment of the external environment
-perhaps 90% of thoughts are fear based, 10% desire based
-Once you shift your focus away from fixating on your personal narrative, you’ll recognize that we’ve progressed significantly on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and life is quite fulfilling
-You’ve relinquished the enchantment and mindfulness that characterized your childhood. Your innate happiness has been obscured by the accumulation of unresolved pain, mistakes, fears, and aspirations that have become attached to your identity
-meditate to resolve these unanswered emails, then your mind will be cleared
-people have an overdeveloped sense of self, which is why they look to alcohol, drugs, cannabis, psychedelics, orgasms, action sports, video games, TV shows. It’s all escapism to try and get away from the voice in their own heads. Being busy is also related to that.
-The capacity to concentrate solely is interconnected with the capacity to immerse oneself, leading to presence, happiness, and, interestingly, heightened effectiveness
-awareness mode; calm, peaceful, happy, content, present
-monkey kind: worried, frightened, anxious (internal monologue in our heads too much)
-our mind is haphazardly conditioned by society to be out of our control. It is a muscle that can be trained and conditioned, and needs to be in our own control
-the greatest superpower is the ability to change yourself
-his regret isn’t the things he did, but doing them with less anger
-your interpretation of your experiences matters more than the experiences
-take a very long term point of view and take the emotion out of it
-develop good habits, avoid bad habits
-to have peace of mind, you must have peace of body first
-Krishnamurti: be in an internal state of revolution. One should always be internally ready for a complete change
-impatience with actions, patience with results. NOT patient with actions, impatience with results
-inspiration is perishable, act immediately
-if there is something you want to do later, do it now. There is no later.
-Engaging with the same material as everyone else will lead you to adopt similar thoughts as the majority. That’s social approval, that’s not where the returns are in life. The returns in life are being out of the herd.
It helps to start out by saying, “I might not gain widespread popularity or acceptance. I might perceive myself as an outsider or not attain the same things as my peers. However, I need to find contentment in embracing my own identity”
-the hardest thing is not doing what you want, it’s knowing what you want. There are no “adults”.
-advice to my younger self (that Naval would give to himself): be exactly who you are. Hesitating leads to enduring unhealthy relationships and unsatisfying jobs for extended periods, rather than addressing these issues promptly.
-your time is all you have. It’s more important than money, friends, anything. Value it and leave immediately. Your time should be spent doing what you want, earning, or learning. Don’t spend time making other people happy or fulfilling other people’s expectations.
-peoples who live well below their financial means experience a freedom that those constantly enhancing their lifestyles cannot comprehend.
-the average person lives in fantasy worlds in the rat race and are unhappy and judging everything they see
-the real truths are heresies; they cannot be spoken. Only discovered, whispered, and perhaps read
-pick a meaning to life and live to it
-live by core values: honesty (being able to speak without a filter)
-before you can lie to another, you must first lie to yourself
-don’t do business with anyone who does short term thinking or dealing with anyone else
-only equal peer relationships
-everyone starts out innocent. Everyone is corrupted. Wisdom is the discarding of vices and the return to virtue, by way of knowledge
-if wisdom could be imparted through words alone, we’d all be done here
-love is given, not received
-many book recommendations
-all greatness comes from suffering
-health, love and your mission, in that order. Nothing else matters.
Conclusion
Perhaps in order to become a great person, one must develop the thinking, mindset, values, wisdom and behaviors as a prerequisite to hit this long-term target. Naval seems to have this wisdom that many others with a high amount of wealth do not seem to possess. I was first entranced by said wisdom. More wealth does not gain more wisdom, but the aspect of wisdom I like is even if you do not become wealthy by it, your overall life in other facets is going to be better in subtle ways.
Disclaimer
This is not Financial Advice. This article is meant only for educational and perhaps entertainment purposes.