The podcast on how to get rich from Naval has a lot of great concepts. I’m always a fan of anyone that isn’t a guru-type! I have a summary below:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-TZqOsVCNM
Transcript: How to Get Rich: Every Episode
Summary Equation:
Eventual Outcome = Distinctiveness of specific knowledge * Singularity of Accountability * How much leverage you use on specific knowledge * How often judgment is correct * society values that knowledge compounded with how much you can keep working at it and how much you can keep improving it with reading and learning.
People you want to work with have three dimensions – smart, high integrity, high motivation
Note: Watch out for people talking about how they are super moral and ethical. Typically the more they say it, the less they are. Same with status.
You want to be a rational optimist
Status vs Wealth
Do not seek status; this is a zero-sum game. People’s virtue signaling on twitter is seeking status, which is the least form of societal value. Evolutionary, we are naturally pointed towards status signaling because people highest accepted in the group would survive. Today it is obsolete. Let your work speak for itself, and don’t try to tear others down to make yourself feel good. When you play stupid games, you get stupid prizes, like virtue signaling on Twitter.
Wealth is when you are providing value to most people around you. Politics is a zero-sum game. You win, or the other loses. It isn’t set up as a wealth builder.
Specific Knowledge
This isn’t something you can learn in a class. It’s what you gain through experience and your natural strengths. If your specific knowledge can be taught in a class you are replaceable. You want to find something you naturally like and are good at. Think about the question, what are you natural at? What comes easy for you that others find difficult? What do people ask you for advice about?
Being both a builder and sales skills will make you unstoppable. It’s easier to be a builder first then learn sales skills then it is going to vice versus. Building a foundation of knowledge will make you not fear any book. Math and logic are good foundations. Skill stacking is a form of specific knowledge because you are creatively combining multiple skills.
Example for myself: My natural strength is that I like learning different topics, which I jump from book to book. I get bored easily when things stay routine. Absorb information quickly. Another strength is finding patterns within different fields and ideas.
Accountability
Take risks under your name, and society will reward you with leverage. A well-functioning team has clear accountability for each position. Typically the more accountability, the more upside, put your reputation on the line, and don’t lose your integrity because if you fail with integrity, you’ll never be able to regain position. People that will fail in public have a lot of power. You gain credibility if you put your name on something and also take the risk. The more accountability you have, the less replaceable you are.
Notes: Skin in the game
Leverage
The oldest form of leverage is labor leverage. This is the worst form because you have to manage people. Before this was the only form of leverage because kings would force everyone to do what they said, the next type is capital leverage, which is using your capital to get more capital. People don’t like capital leverage because they view it as unfair, and it can be accumulated through generations. The biggest hurdle is acquiring capital.
The best form of leverage is code, media, or selling products that can’t be easily replicated. This is the newest form and where a lot of new millionaires and billionaires are made. The new structure is very egalitarian. You don’t need permission to use it. Labor is a person’s permission and capital you need to have money or use other people’s money. In the new environment, learning to code is an essential thing because it can help you leverage ordering robots around the world. Using the scale of economics, digital products with zero marginal dollar costs, and network effects can be a powerful form for leverage.
Notes: Example, Jeff Bezos can’t have a better google or watch better shows because these are made for the masses.
Judgement
Judgement is knowing the long-term effect of your decisions. Good judgment is gained through experience and learning. The people who are angry on twitter have poor judgment. If I can read some of your tweets and have a clear idea of what it’s like in your head, you have poor judgment. If you continue to be upset about everything people say and try to rip on them, you have poor judgment. The more outraged someone is, the worst someone’s judgment is.
After you gain leverage, judgment becomes your most important skill. For example, a CEO of a large company gets paid so much because they are steering a 100 billion dollar ship. Warren Buffet could be poor tomorrow, but people would give him cash to invest because of his judgment.
Quote:
The more outraged somebody is, I guarantee you, the worse their judgment is. If someone’s constantly tweeting political outrage, and just see an angry person getting into fights, you don’t want to hand this person the keys to your car, let alone the keys to your company.
Random Highlights
- You need to work hard but knowledge workers work hard then rest a lot. Knowledge workers are similar to athletes. Working for 80 hours is just status signaling, eventually, your brain breaks down.
- It’s more important what you work on and who you work with then working hard
- There are no get rich quick schemes, that is just someone getting rich off you. – Make sure they got rich from something else before.
- Find three hobbies – one that makes you money, one that makes you fit, one that makes you smarter
- Five most important skills – Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Computer programming, persuasion/communication. Lifelong reading always helps.
- Turn down coffee and meetings especially ones with 8 people sitting around a table. If you try to set up a meeting with a successful person make it actionable. Clean calendars will help you keep a clear mind so you can think.
- Keep trying to be the best in your field while pivoting to find where you are the most with a product-market fit.
- Avoid markets wherever the masses are or where no one is.
- When applying all this knowledge it takes time and you only have to be right once.
- Impatience with action, patience with results.
- Don’t hang out with pessimist and cynics, they will take you down to their level
- Free markets are intrinsic to humans