A new discovery of mine has been the great mind of Naval Ravikant (aka TechBuddha). I need to give a shout out to Joe Rogan for featuring him on his podcast for the discovery. In this discussion they spoke about how to get rich without being lucky. It was a tweet storm that Naval punched out in May 2018, where Naval goes through a list of tweets which is what he believes is the key to getting rich without being lucky. I was never aware of these until I watched the podcast, so have enjoyed reading through and adding my thoughts to each one.
Who is Naval Ravikant and why should you listen to his advice on how to get rich?
Naval is a tech startup GIANT. He is the CEO and co-founder of AngelList He has also co-founded many other succesful ventures including Epionions (which also went public as part of the shopping.com release) along with Vast.com. He is an extremely active Angel Investor and is always on the hunt for new opportunities. He has invested in over 100 companies including names such as Yammer, Uber, Twitter, Stack Overflow and many more. He currently as a net worth of $2.2 Billion. Naval is known for his outside the square thinking and is well known as a philospher CEO, hence the Tech Buddha moniker.
He is a black and white kind of guy who says it how it is and is known well for his no bullshit and time wasting averse ways. A man of my own heart. He really hit me in the feels as he pronounced a sentenced that ultimately resonated with how I feel right now and ultimately where my life is at: “Every man has two lives. The second one starts when he realises he has only one”.
Bottom line, Naval is a great guy to listen to and the advice you are about to read below is on point and could set you on a path of prosperity. When you read a lot of these you will think, of course. But then really think about it. You know it but what are you DOING about it. I hope you enjoy the below summary of one of the gifts of the internet, Naval Ravikant’s how to get rich Tweet storm.
The How to get rich without being lucky Tweet Storm
Below is the tweet storm in it’s entirety. For each tweet I have added my thoughts on what I think it means and how it can be translated. I hope it does it justice to Naval Ravikant’s words, but happy to receive any feedback on my thoughts. Please do comment below if you feel the need to. Love me some feedback.
Tweet 1 – 1. 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.
The biggest difference between a poor man and a rich man is their mindset. Which implies that that poor may be rich and the rich may be poor. Wealth ultimately is having assets that will grow your wealth while you sleep as the tweet describes. This is similar to what is taught in the great book by Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad.
The rich think very differently to the poor. The poor do not think about how they can increase their wealth by investments, but they think about the money that they transfer for their skills, ergo WORK!
Once you traverse the river of understanding the difference between money and wealth, you will commence valuing your time and how you use your money very differently. A great way of looking at this is that typically people will save their money for years in a savings account in a bank. The rich person looks how they can re-invest their earnings into ways that will then create a compound interest effect to their wealth.
Getting stuck in the trap of the nine to five, no matter how well paying the job is will never EVER bring you real wealth. You know as Dan Lok says, some of that FU Money. It’s definitely a start but you need to look at the world differently than being a pawn in the system. You need to build your own wealth.
Tweet 2 – Understand that ethical wealth creation is possible. If you secretly despise wealth, it will elude you.
This is well and truly another mindset thing. Ask yourself one simple question. Do you think that money is evil? Do you think that the great system of capitalism is evil? If you think yes or you know people who think this way. Wealth will never be part of their horizon.
Money is NOT the root of all evil. This is one of those silly myths that have been perpetuated by crazy 1st world virtue signalling noobs. Money is not an entity with thought or ability it is only a commodity which can be used. Just as money is used for many great things such as scientific research, helping those who are less fortunate and so on.
I encountered this mindset very often in two parts of my previous life. When I was a musician and when I was vegan. People ultimately thought that in the music world that earning money for their art was selling out. This mindset really frustrated me. I couldn’t help but think why not get rewarded for all this hard work. Being virtuous doesn’t pay the bills. Being rewarded through funds is the greatest sense of achievement for the creative ability you have. It is a true representation that people ACTUALLY value your work and are willing to hand over hard earned dollars to show you their appreciation.
Likewise in the vegan movement there was a strong anti-capitalist movement. They failed to understand that both money and the capitalist system were not things inherently unethical. But yes there are people in the world who do things with money that are bad. They are two separate things. The action of a person versus the actual item itself. It is quite silly when you think about it.
Simply money and wealth are not evil. You need to believe that before you can set yourself on a path of prosperity. I must admit that at some stage of my life I probably felt that. But I was inflicted by the horrible mindset of the victim complex. That’s a whole topic in itself.
Tweet 3 – Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games.
Don’t play the status game is a simple one. In today’s society status signalling is absolute rife with the explosion of social media. People play the status game in regards to many things, but the one that counts the most is in income and earnings. There is absolutely no need to talk about this kind of stuff as well as showing off your status and luxuries. If you currently do so, you’re just playing the status games.
Typically you will find someone who trys to bring someone else down in their attempts of wealth creation to be this type of person. You don’t want these people in your life. You may find that you have people in your life that are on the same path as you and relish the success you have and lift you up even further. These are the people you want to surround yourself with. Status does not build wealth. Ignore being part of this trap and do your thing and build your wealth in anonymity. It’s a much better place to be in.
This is one of the main reason’s I decided on quitting Facebook. The continued self importance and people flaunting their opinions and stuff. It just got so nauseating and turning it off was well and truly one of the best decisions over the past year. Social media is killing us with an abundance of information that adds ZERO value to your (life most of the time). Leave the status junkies to this realm.
Tweet 4 – 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.
Renting out your time, simply means you’re never going to be rich by having a job. Swapping your skills for a pay check is the slow road to retirement at the age of 65 with little wealth to enjoy in your golden years. There is a reason why they call it a retainer salary. That salary retains your services and you build your life in accordance to that salary that you earn. In essence becoming a slave to your work.
You need to get yourself some equity. Start a business or get a piece of a business. You need the mindset of wealth creation so that you get the financial freedom you crave. I wish I had learned this at a much younger age. Having started my own business and sold it and now starting a couple of businesses including a real estate portfolio along with a couple of web based businesses that I invest my time in to drive long term passive income.
Wealth will never be built working for someone. Remember that! You need to go out there and create your wealth.
Tweet 5 – You will get rich by giving society what it wants but does not yet know how to get. At scale.
Solving the worlds disconnects and adding value to peoples lives is a road to wealth. We have all the tools at our disposal to create amazing products which will enable people to live better lives. If you are an ideas person it’s time to start pushing out these ideas with massive action and bringing them to scale.
All the amazing tech innovation of the past decade, do you sometimes think “oh I could have thought of that”. It’s quite hilarious how simple most of todays value driving tech businesses are. but alas someone had to push them out at scale to the mass market.They simply had the attitude of doing it rather than thinking about. You could be the next Uber, Spotify or Afterpay. All solutions to everyday problems, or problems people didn’t even realise they had.
The only thing that is going to turn that idea into reality is action. So go forth with massive action and create that amazing product the world deserves to have. Here is another tip, if you put it out to the world for feedback, don’t take too long to make it happen otherwise you might just see someone else (usually no malice) bringing it out into the world. Ideas travel!
Tweet 6 – Pick an industry where you can play long term games with long term people.
While you may have many talents and strengths, to get started pick and industry where there will be the ability to have a long term play. Just as when you are making decisions on equity investment you will typically choose the long term opportunity gains over the short term.
A simple example of this would be say with energy, would you pick fossil fuel or renewable energy sector? Of course the renewable energy sector as it is the future of power generation in the world. Even further to this, you may then pick specifically renewable energy in emerging markets such as India and China who are yet to fully adopt it as part of their power mix.
Added to this as the initial point mentions choose something that you are familiar with. A great example of sticking to what you know is Warren Buffett. He ONLY ever invested in stocks and companies which he understood. To be an owner in a business and be unsure of what it does or how it works, makes it extremely hard to understand how you can add value. Stick to what you know or if you don’t understand it, learn about it first.
Tweet 7 – The Internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers. Most people haven’t figured this out yet.
The internet is quite possibly the most impactful innovation in the history of our species. It literally is a place to learn how to get rich. The scary part is how few people understand the potential of this and how this can possibly mold the future of their careers. It has created a swagger of new professions. It is estimated that 1.2 million people are employed due to internet commerce. It is expected to hit 5 trillion dollars in e-commerce sales within the next few years.
The other thing to account for is the gig economy and how the internet is evolving just how people work. There is a growing trend that less people will be employed and be working in the ‘gig’ economy and remotely from the traditional employer. It is now time to be prepared for this new horizon.
Tweet 8 – Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.
Compound interest is simply the greatest mechanism for creating wealth. While this technically speaking is a finance term, compound interest also works into all facets of your life. This can be your relationships, your habits, your lifestyle and so on. Compound interest has a snowball effect that you have to adapt to. This snowball effect becomes one of your life’s philosophies as you make a commitment to continuously perform actions everyday that will help you achieves the goals that you want in life. This compound interest allows for a shorter time frame for things to be achieved.
This can be demonstrated in very obvious ways. There is obviously the compound interest in financial terms. You invest X and you receive X + Y in returns. This process repeats itself. This also occurs with things such as healthy habits, take exercise. With continuous effort your body will transform from being unfit to a physical machine when you put in the continuous effort.
9. Pick business partners with high intelligence, energy, and, above all, integrity.
There is a natural law which shows that you are the output of the 5 closest people to you. So when choosing people to spend time with, choose wisely. This especially rings true when it comes to business associates and partners. As a rule it’s always best to choose people with high intelligence and high energy. The most important selection criteria of course is that they have absolute integrity. People you move into wealth growing ventures ultimately must be people of high integrity, ones that you trust and also admire.
Surround yourself with amazing people. People who help lift you up with positive action and are full of optimism. I personally decided to rid my life of negative people in my journey of personal growth. One by one I started spending less time with people who were overly negative and lacked motivation to achieve. It may sound selfish, but the reality is we have one effort at this game called life, lets make the most of it and surround ourselves with other high achievers.
Tweet 10 – Don’t partner with cynics and pessimists. Their beliefs are self-fulfilling.
I kind of touched on this in the previous point. The cynics and pessimists of the world deserve little of your attention. They tend to be people who are bound by the fixed mindset and rarely have ambition to achieve. Your time is the only real currency you can trade in in life and to involve the negative Nancy’s of the world in it, is simply a waste of time. Drop the negative people out of you life ASAP, it will be the best decision you make.
Note: If you do use social media platforms, do yourself a massive favour. Unfollow any person who is overly negative and pessimistic. In fact any information which brings you down. Get rid of it. A mindset of success recognises that there are bad things that happen in the world, you just don’t need to be smashed in the face by it all the time.
Tweet 11 – Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.
Selling seems to have become a dirty word of society, when in truth everyone is selling something. To build wealth ultimately, you will need to sell something, whether that is a product, an idea or yourself. A good start on learning how to sell and persuade others is the great book by Robert Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Influence. In this book he has identified 7 key influencers of persuasion (based on 35 years of evidence based research): Weapons of influence (aka reason why), Reciprocation, Commitment & Consistency, Social proof, Liking, Authority and Scarcity. I highly recommend this book if you want to learn anything about persuading others.
The other thing to do right now is start following Grant Cardone, the godfather of selling. He is an ultimate weapon when it comes to selling and if you want to learn the way of selling today, he is your go to guy (in my humble opinion).
The second part of this point is learn to build, or at least learn how to turn your ideas and concepts into reality. There is an abundant amount of knowledge out there and you do not need to be a coding king or know how to build websites. You just need to know how to turn your concept into reality. Knowing how to code can be a boon to your skill base and if you are young I’d highly suggest getting the basics of it down. In fact at any age! Go and learn how to code.
Finally Naval’s point is that if you can do both, you will be an unstoppable force of nature. Knowing to sell what you have built will be the fastest path to prosperity. Especially if you have a tonne of killer ideas.
Tweet 12 – Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage.
One of the paths I have taken is the adoption of the growth mindset and this has really assisted me with pushing to places I have never gone before. What does this mean though? Well you need to learn all that you can for what endeavors you are planning on undertaking. Get the specific knowledge that is required.
Place the much needed accountability on yourself to make sure that you remain focused andd on par to hit your goals and achievements. This will in turn provide you with the required leverage to reach where you plan to go. Remain in this groove of continuous improvement and be armed with the skills and knowledge you require, keep your self aligned and place massive effort into your planned achievements. As one fine boss once said to me, persistence overcomes resistance.
Keep this is mind whenever you are straying down the path of quick wins and get rich schemes. They do not exist! It can happen but, thats called the lottery and winners do not gamble on those kinds of odds.
Tweet 13 – Specific knowledge is the knowledge that you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else, and replace you.
If getting specific knowledge was easy then basically the whole world would be billionaires. Specific knowledge is something that is not available on tap. It’s the ability to find quality and unmatched sources of information which when consumed by you will become specific knowledge. For all the information that you consume and understand that will help you set yourself apart from the crowd, this will increase your value as an individual. This is not something that happens overnight for most but something that takes many years.
Tweet 14 – Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now.
Go down that rabbit hole of learning. To pursue a wealth mindset as stated earlier you need to pursue things that are of interest to you. Delve into this specific topic as much as you can. Pursue this with genuine passion and curiosity. Don’t follow the trends and what is “hot right now” this is not going to set you apart from the crowd. Be the trend setter not the follower. Wealth is created by being those who solve the disconnection and add value to peoples lives. Go out and be great, learn, learn and learn!
Tweet 15 – Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others.
I love this thought pattern. When the world is doing one thing yet you are out there being your crazy self doing B, people will assume you are doing work. The reality is you are in your zone, so while everyone is doing A you are busy changing the world and creating something unique and great that you are passionate about. This formula seems foreign to everyone else except you, that’s ok because you are building knowledge in an area that you love.
Tweet 16 – When specific knowledge is taught, it’s through apprenticeships, not schools.
It sounds harsh but greatness is not taught in schools. Schools are part of the industrial complex which grooms people to be minions of society. As Seth Godin one my favourite writers said, “there’s a shortage of people who are willing to stand up and do something interesting and unique. School is a complete failure.”
It is so true though. Nearly everything you learn in school adds little value to your adult life. We cram our kids into these places of learning so that they can become adults prepared for what? Higher education. What people really need is real work and apprenticeships where you will find out the real secrets of the work you want to do. This is where REAL learning happens.
If you want to really go and learn something. Ask someone to go and work for them. I’m personally a perennial job hopper but the knowledge I have gained across many industries and many facets of the business world has now placed me a position to start launching my own products.
Tweet 17 – Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative. It cannot be outsourced or automated.
The creativity of and an employee is basically the reason why employers value one employee more than another. Building specific skills and knowledge is a base which is typically highly creative or technical. What does this mean? Well, just as the first line states this is highly valued by others. If you have specific knowledge, know that this is extremely desirable to other people. If you can, be this person in life.
Tweet 18 – Embrace accountability, and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage.
Yes!! Don’t fall prey to the fixed mindset. Be 100% accountable for everything you undertake in life. Don’t accuse and point fingers at other people when something goes wrong. Take full accountability.
When you take on business risks, you do this undertaking all accountability. Yes these business risks comes with a whole load of ‘ifs’, ‘buts’ and ‘hows’. This is the moment you need to stand up and accept this responsibility. If something goes wrong, it is your job to fix. This kind of accountability will drive equity and boost your leverage.
By doing this you will see that the universe will throw back at you more and more opportunities and you will then have another moment WTF! Take them and continue to grow into the awesome you deserve to be.
Tweet 19 – The most accountable people have singular, public, and risky brands: Oprah, Trump, Kanye, Elon.
The ultimate level of responsibility in brand ownership is when you are the singular. When you are the brand. Great people have built up their personal brand to be an item in itself. That’s why these people have ultimate leverage and equity. They have set of expectations that they must live up to and with this comes a huge value on your time. The ultimate goal is to build this personal brand where people will pay tons of money just to share time with you.
Tweet 20 – Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media).
Create that business leverage through creating something that has no marginal cost of replication. This in essence is creating something that is either code or media based. Take for example most of the booming tech startups are fine examples of this phenomenon. The finest example of this is Amazon, who never really ever created a product at first but used a tech platform to aggregate shopping. It was unprofitable for years but this did not impact its growth and company value. It had business leverage of having a HUGE customer pool and a brand name which spoke for itself. This is ultimate leverage. This is ultimate fortune.
Tweet 21 – Capital means money. To raise money, apply your specific knowledge, with accountability, and show resulting good judgment.
This one is fairly simple and to the point. Apply the specific knowledge and earn some money. Do this with ultimate accountability and make good judgement of how to use this money. The typical method with generating wealth is to reinvest rather than splurging on crap you do not need. In the sense of creating a product reinvesting into that product is a great way of continuing to build the value and working on that compound interest effect.
Tweet 22 – 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.
This I believe is a reflection of the current system and how it works. Yes in the old world leverage was in people working for you. The industrial revolution was basically an era where people were the machines. This is not something you should be chasing today to build wealth. With the boom of the tech world we do not need thousands of workers to build empires. A team of coders and their specific knowledge can typically be all thats needed to built ultimate wealth. Look at the new model, learn how to sell and build something awesome.
Tweet 23 – 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.
In the old world framework you simply need people who are willing to pay you money for your labour services. You need people who want to buy your stuff. It all requires their permission to hand over their capital. You are always chasing it in the old world. You need a horde of followers for wealth creation. Where as Tweet 24 is the new world.
Tweet 24 – 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.
Build something awesome and you will get rich while you sleep. What a great way to think. I just spoke of the Amazon example. But this can be brought down to simple ways of building products that don’t need to be huge. Take for example at its simplest form a Blog such as this. It in itself is a media player, with enough love and effort placed on it, it can become an asset. Traffic in today’s world has a price and this traffic can be monetised. You don’t need to be a coding genius to become part of this new tech online world. There are plenty of people far less smarter than you crushing it.
Tweet 25 – An army of robots is freely available – it’s just packed in data centers for heat and space efficiency. Use it.
Yes a whole new world of computer power is waiting for us. With the rise of cloud based data centers, we have all the computing power and storage at our disposal. Build something that can leverage this technology and wealth will come to you. I am indeed looking forward to my new gig where as part of that I will be tapping into the power of this robot army and building levels of efficiency to it.
Tweet 26 – If you can’t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts.
Just as I mentioned in tweet 24, you do not need to be a coder to win in this new world. We also live in a new world of media and creativity. This is allowing people to build incomes from new and emerging platforms, even old ones (such as books). Do yourself a favour if you want to learn a bit more about this space please read the book by Gary Vaynerchuk called Crushing It. This is your bible in how to excel in this world of new media.
Ever heard of PewDiePie? He is the best example of this new media. A 29 year old Youtuber who is now worth around $20 million. Yes, someone who makes videos and posts them on Youtube is worth that much. It’s possible to do anything today, you just need to have a great idea and believe you can do it. The rest is effort baby!
Tweet 27 -Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgement.
Leverage is the the ultimate multiplier for you judgement. As your leverage grows so does your level of judgement as you have this foundational base of leverage which allows you to have more accountability and judgement
Tweet 28 – Judgement requires experience but can be built faster by learning foundational skills.
Experience isn’t everything to building your judgement. Simply by learning foundation skills this can help you build your judgement. I would suggest the foundational skill of numeracy to be an extremely important one. Understanding basic arithmetic will assist in making better financial judgement. Being committed to continuous learning and improving these skills will indeed accelerate your judgement skills.
Tweet 29 – There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes.
There is an irony in me commenting on this as my major, some twenty years ago in college was ‘Business’ and totally get the point. Business is just something that everyone should be good at. Yes you can go to classes to learn theory about business but back to Tweet 16. Apprenticeships are the way forward, getting skills from trial and failure or learning from doing the work is the way forward.
The final nine tweets of Naval Ravikants – How to get rich without getting lucky tweet storm are fairly self explanatory. Learn more, value your time, just do it, have a value, work hard, be the best and in time it will come. Remember there is no such thing as a get rich quick scheme.
Please see below the final nine:
Tweet 30 – Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers.
Tweet 31 – Reading is faster than listening. Doing is faster than watching.
Tweet 32 – You should be too busy to “do coffee,” while still keeping an uncluttered calendar.
Tweet 33 – 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.
Tweet 34 – 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.
Tweet 35 – Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.
Tweet 36 – There are no get rich quick schemes. That’s just someone else getting rich off you.
Tweet 37 – Apply specific knowledge, with leverage, and eventually, you will get what you deserve.
Tweet 38 – 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.
