This morning, Naval Ravikant, CEO & co-founder of AngelList, crafted a thread on Twitter containing some of the best small business advice in the history of the internet. He began with, “How to Get Rich (without getting lucky):” Next, he shared advice that should be passed on for generations. We embedded every tweet from his thread below. Enjoy!
How to Get Rich (without getting lucky):
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Understand that ethical wealth creation is possible. If you secretly despise wealth, it will elude you.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
You’re not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity - a piece of a business - to gain your financial freedom.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
You will get rich by giving society what it wants but does not yet know how to get. At scale.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Pick an industry where you can play long term games with long term people.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
The Internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers. Most people haven't figured this out yet.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Pick business partners with high intelligence, energy, and, above all, integrity.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Don't partner with cynics and pessimists. Their beliefs are self-fulfilling.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Specific knowledge is knowledge that you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else, and replace you.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
When specific knowledge is taught, it’s through apprenticeships, not schools.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative. It cannot be outsourced or automated.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Embrace accountability, and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
The most accountable people have singular, public, and risky brands: Oprah, Trump, Kanye, Elon.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
“Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I will move the earth.”
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
- Archimedes
Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media).
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Capital means money. To raise money, apply your specific knowledge, with accountability, and show resulting good judgment.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Labor means people working for you. It's the oldest and most fought-over form of leverage. Labor leverage will impress your parents, but don’t waste your life chasing it.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Capital and labor are permissioned leverage. Everyone is chasing capital, but someone has to give it to you. Everyone is trying to lead, but someone has to follow you.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
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.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
An army of robots is freely available - it's just packed in data centers for heat and space efficiency. Use it.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
If you can't code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgement.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Judgement requires experience, but can be built faster by learning foundational skills.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Reading is faster than listening. Doing is faster than watching.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
You should be too busy to “do coffee," while still keeping an uncluttered calendar.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Set and enforce an aspirational personal hourly rate. If fixing a problem will save less than your hourly rate, ignore it. If outsourcing a task will cost less than your hourly rate, outsource it.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Work as hard as you can. Even though who you work with and what you work on are more important than how hard you work.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
There are no get rich quick schemes. That's just someone else getting rich off you.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Apply specific knowledge, with leverage, and eventually you will get what you deserve.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
When you're finally wealthy, you'll realize that it wasn't what you were seeking in the first place. But that's for another day.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
06-03-2018 Update: Naval summarizes the thread.
Summary: Productize Yourself. https://t.co/uVJzWePnYO
— Naval (@naval) June 3, 2018
06-07-2018 Update: Naval hosts a Periscope stream where he discusses the Twitter thread and breaks down the different concepts, including “productize yourself” in detail. Here it is:
— Naval (@naval) June 7, 2018
[CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Dustin Templeton is a digital marketing veteran and SMB consultant who works with business owners and entrepreneurs to maximize productivity and grow sales from the internet. Read his full bio here.
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