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Naval Tweet & Youtube podcast

How to Get Rich (without getting lucky):

— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018

Gooaye Podcast Introduction

Naval’s Tweets

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.

Understand that ethical wealth creation is possible. If you secretly despise wealth, it will elude you.

Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games.

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.

You will get rich by giving society what it wants but does not yet know how to get. At scale.

Pick an industry where you can play long term games with long term people.

The Internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers. Most people haven’t figured this out yet.

Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.

Pick business partners with high intelligence, energy, and, above all, integrity.

Don’t partner with cynics and pessimists. Their beliefs are self-fulfilling.

Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.

Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage.

Specific knowledge is knowledge that 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.

Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others.

When specific knowledge is taught, it’s through apprenticeships, not schools.

Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative. It cannot be outsourced or automated.

Embrace accountability, and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage.

The most accountable people have singular, public, and risky brands: Oprah, Trump, Kanye, Elon.

“Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I will move the earth.” - Archimedes

Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media).

Capital means money. To raise money, apply your specific knowledge, with accountability, and show resulting good judgment.

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.

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.

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.

An army of robots is freely available - it’s just packed in data centers for heat and space efficiency. Use it.

If you can’t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts.

Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgement.

Judgement requires experience, but can be built faster by learning foundational skills.

There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes.

Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers.

Reading is faster than listening. Doing is faster than watching.

You should be too busy to “do coffee," while still keeping an uncluttered calendar.

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.

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.

Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.

There are no get rich quick schemes. That’s just someone else getting rich off you.

Apply specific knowledge, with leverage, and eventually you will get what you deserve.

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.

Gooaye Podcast Transcript

The title is directly “How to get rich without getting lucky”, how to become rich without relying on luck.

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.

Seek wealth, not money or status. You want to pursue wealth, not money, status, or social position.

And wealth is “assets that earn while you sleep”. Assets that can make money for you even when you are sleeping. What are these assets? I think stocks, real estate, and bonds all count.

Companies count too, whether big or small. As long as there are machines, factories, and personnel, when you go out on vacation or just relax, your company continues to run. It is fundamentally a tool that can generate cash flow, so this thing is an asset.

I even think blogs, podcasts, and YouTube are also assets. Although it looks like YouTube only pays you for how much you do, I found that as long as you have traffic, it’s all measurable. 1,000 clicks mean a certain amount of ad revenue. Blogs and podcasts might be harder to quantify like that.

But I think the feedback isn’t just purely in cash. Some things may not convert to cash for you immediately, but as you continue to accumulate your influence and output, one day these things can come back to you. So I think this counts as an asset.

So what is money? Money is used to “transfer time and wealth”. It is a currency used to trade time and wealth. Is time easy to understand? Simply put, I originally had to wash dishes myself for an hour. Today I use money to buy… I buy a dishwasher, and I save this hour. I pay someone to wash dishes for me, and I can also save this hour. Using money to buy time, and using money to transfer wealth. So money, implying currency, is a medium of exchange.

And status is your position in society, your social standing, how everyone sees you.

Understand that ethical wealth creation is possible. If you secretly despise wealth, it will elude you.

The second sentence says, “Understand that ethical wealth creation is possible”. I think this can be translated as “A gentleman loves money and gets it in the right way” (君子愛財取之有道). It is actually possible to make money ethically and with class.

It’s just that I think he’s addressing those people who think that if you do something just to make money, you seem very evil. He’s throwing out this concept that, actually, if you want to make money in a so-called non-evil, classy, and ethical way, it is possible. You run a business, you provide a service, you make everyone’s life more convenient. This all belongs to “ethical wealth creation”.

It also mentions that if you secretly look down on wealth, wealth will naturally stay away from you.

It’s like what the elders say, if you fold your money messily in your wallet, if you don’t like money, then money won’t like you either. If you think money is dirt, then naturally… well, dirt won’t like you either. It means that your attitude actually determines part of your wealth situation.

Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games.

Next is “Ignore people playing status games”. Ignore those who are playing social status games. They gain their own social status by attacking others who are acquiring wealth.

If people can’t understand this, I’d suggest looking at Twitter. Search for AOC, you can find a US Congresswoman. I think she is a typical example of this kind of person.

Simply put, “Generic resentment of others’ efforts” (note: translating “己願他力” contextually, likely means expecting others to do things or resenting others). If we want to achieve something today, how do we do it? Not by telling everyone “let’s create job opportunities, let’s develop”. No, because “environment protection, pollution, bad, we shouldn’t do that”. We just dig money directly from the rich.

You will find that a series of politicians all have this kind of thinking. They all think that these rich people are damned and should be squeezed for more money for us.

But you have to know that these so-called rich people, categorized by everyone as one of the “Black Five Categories” (bad elements), “Damn it, they are all making money, digging resources in our society”. Actually, they are fundamentally creating a lot of value. They are giving everyone job opportunities. They are making everyone’s life more convenient.

If we really achieve “do nothing”, like extreme environmental protection and so on, then everyone can just go back to primitive life. Okay, it’s best not to develop at all, don’t use mobile phones, computers can be put away.

Many people enjoy the consequences of this development, the results of development, but at the same time, they criticize development. Including those young people who ran to throw tomato soup on Van Gogh’s paintings. I think they are also like this. You can tell by looking at them.

So actually, there are many people who gain social status by attacking those who try to create value for society and create wealth for themselves. Just look at AOC’s Twitter and you’ll know what she’s saying. “Resentment of others”, just these words.

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.

“You’re not going to get rich renting out your time”. This is actually a cliché. It means that if you want to be a wage earner and get rich, it’s really difficult. Those whose time is sold are harder to get rich.

But of course, I don’t think it’s absolutely like this. Like some programmers in the US, they are also selling this time, but their time is very valuable. “Senior wage earners”.

Senior wage earners may even be richer than some business owners, so I don’t think this is absolute. But relatively speaking, this concept is acceptable. That is, if you try to make money entirely by working… “Working” here has no derogatory meaning, it means paying your own labor for money. This may be a part of your income, but you must also “own equity”. You need to have rights and interests, you need to have some equity, you must own some business. Even if you haven’t created a business yourself, how do you own a business? Buy stocks. Buying stocks is a way to acquire a business.

It’s just that most people are like this: maybe I buy in today and it drops 5%, 10%, and they curse “Damn it” and keep scolding. But they forget that this thing may be viewed in the long term, and this thing keeps rising.

Because talking about the long term… poor people may look at the short term, betting on a price difference. But in fact, many people forget that buying stocks itself is holding a business. It means you hold a part of this business. It’s just that naturally some people buy expensive, some buy cheap, some like to buy at the peak of the heat, and may buy a little more expensive. That’s your own choice.

But actually, I think holding a business is something that should be totally encouraged. If you want to achieve so-called financial freedom, holding a business and holding assets can accelerate this process. If you serve purely as a wage earner, it might be a bit more difficult, but not necessarily. Senior wage earners can make a lot of money.

You will get rich by giving society what it wants but does not yet know how to get. At scale.

The next item mentions: “You will get rich by giving society what it wants but does not yet know how to get. At scale.”

What does it mean? It means you will become rich by providing society with what it wants, but what it doesn’t know it wants yet, and doing it quantitatively (at scale). That way, you will get rich.

This means you have to find the pain points of society and solve them at scale. You can’t just do it in a small amount.

For example, I know there is a traffic jam problem now, so I use a rickshaw to pull it myself. Yes, maybe some people can accept such a thing, but this thing cannot be scaled, right? So he may not be able to make big money. If you want to make big money, you find the pain point and scale it.

I think living in Linkou, what I can think of is… You know Linkou is the place with the most people moving in in the entire Shuangbei area (Taipei and New Taipei), and the age group of the people is also relatively low. There are more young families, and the income is the highest in the New Taipei area. But actually, there is a big problem in this place: huge population influx, but social functions have not kept up.

Including things like restaurants. In fact, many Linkou people still have to go to Taipei or Taoyuan restaurants. Why? Because the restaurants here haven’t kept up yet. So I think something like this is an opportunity. Some groups just need to come here and open… Like I saw Danny’s Steakhouse opened here. The store is full at noon, 12:00, 1:30, Friday, Thursday. It means you know the spending power is there, it’s just that maybe too few people are doing it.

So you know, what is this society missing right now? And they might not even know it yet. For example, parents in Linkou may be used to saying, “Ah, holidays mean going to Taipei or Taoyuan to walk the kids.” They don’t know that actually we can walk them here. They haven’t thought of it yet. But wait until… maybe everyone builds it up there, after the whole cluster is built, everyone will stay in this place.

This is one example. It means that if you discover some pain points in society - maybe traffic jams, maybe childcare spaces, maybe using something - and provide services at scale, you might become rich.

Pick an industry where you can play long term games with long term people.

That asks you to choose to do a certain career or business. In this business, you can “play long term games with long term people”. It is a long-term track, and there are some so-called personnel who will work here for a long term. An “industry” that can be used as a layout for the long line. “Industry” is industrial classification.

I think I’ll give a few examples. Some short-term things, like calendars. Last year I told everyone about this year’s calendars, “Damn, this year will explode because it’s too easy to make money.” So I knew everyone would definitely do this, and do it until it exploded.

So, making calendars until they explode became the pattern this year. Then you found that every house is issuing calendars. Who is the smartest inside? I think it is ZecZec (Crowdfunding platform). They help you raise funds. You guys are selling and killing each other in a mess, everyone f***ing each other, but the point is, in the end, ZecZec can earn its money. And ZecZec is a very smart track. I think crowdfunding is a long-term track. Doing calendars is a short-term track because maybe everyone won’t do calendars next year. Maybe the year before last everyone made dried noodles, now they want to make calendars? Maybe the year after next everyone will make charity pens or something. But no matter what the hell you do, ZecZec can earn this money. You people who are rushing to do this, things that are red-hot right now, you are doing “short term” things. And ZecZec might be doing a “long term” thing. It sounds like I’m doing an ad for it, but actually I think that business is really very smart.

So you have to choose one… you know this thing is long-term. I think platform services are one item. Although platforms may also iterate or whatever, a place that can aggregate everyone might be a so-called “long term” thing. Because the themes on it may change, the topics on it may change, but the act of aggregating everyone itself is a long-term theme. So you have to constantly look for a long-term game, long-term people, and then run this business.

The Internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers. Most people haven’t figured this out yet.

The next item: the Internet has massively broadened the possibilities and space of everyone’s career. But most people haven’t discovered this yet. The Internet itself is a readily available leverage for everyone, but many people don’t know. They might still simply be doing offline services. They don’t know that just putting this thing on the Internet costs very little, but it might bring huge customers because of this.

Just think about it, how much does it cost you to post on the Internet? Maybe a few hundred or a few thousand dollars a month to maintain it. But this can give your small business more… maybe hundreds of customers or something. And even, assuming it accidentally goes viral, people coming in through the Internet could be multiples of your physical business, many times over. Some people may come because of the reputation.

Treating the Internet as a leverage, I think, is a concept that people of this generation must have. So I agree with this item very much. Otherwise, managing your own social media, managing your Google Business Profile… this is extremely important stuff. Those who know are already doing it very hard. But indeed there are still many people who don’t know that the Internet is a huge free leverage. You can even say it’s cheap as hell. Through it, your downside risk is extremely limited, but you can get a very high upside.

Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.

The next item tells everyone, you have to play a compound interest game. And all returns in life, whether wealth, relationships, family relationships, friend relationships, parent-child relationships, or your knowledge and wisdom, they all come from “compound interest”. They all come from continuous compound accumulation.

When you have more wisdom and knowledge today, then in the next year, this thing can bring perhaps more brilliant results. Keep rolling it down, and it might cause this snowball effect.

He believes that actually it’s not just like what everyone imagines… stock assets, bond assets, or real estate assets, that might produce a compound interest effect. It’s not just that. Including other “returns” in life, they are all in this form.

I agree with this too. That is, take a thing that can be repeated, do it repeatedly, do it well, and you can make money. This should also be… many people in the trading circle will see these words, some old seniors will tell you this way.

Their stuff might be plainly just exactly this: “I just keep repeating it.” At first, it looks small, but in the end, it can bring me very good returns every year. Actually, it’s the same strategy, then make a little correction and adjustment, but he knows where his “edge” is, and then keeps repeating it. Then that brings “compound interest” to this thing.

Pick business partners with high intelligence, energy, and, above all, integrity.

Next is telling everyone about cooperating with others. You have to pick these “business partners” with “high intelligence, energy, and integrity” as the most important.

Take these as your selection criteria. High IQ means smart people. Energy means energetic people. And the most important: integrity. Honest people. These are the most important conditions for your selection of people.

Don’t partner with cynics and pessimists. Their beliefs are self-fulfilling.

And don’t partner with “cynics” and “pessimists”. Cynics are those who are cynical. Pessimists are very negative, very tragic. For these people, their beliefs are “self-fulfilling”. He only wants to enrich himself, he only wants to do things that are beneficial to himself. So, stay away from these people.

Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.

“Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.” You learn how to sell, learn how to create. If you can do both, you can reach the state of “unstoppable”. A state where absolutely no one can stop me.

“Learn to sell” might be a bit harder, I feel. There may be many who can “build”, but those who can “sell” might be fewer.

So many big bosses actually came from that sales system. You have to understand your product very well, you have to know how to sell things to others, how to bring in performance.

Similarly in the creation part, of course, it is also very important. It’s just that I think the “sell” part might be a bit harder. Actually, the “sell” part can also be discussed in the stock market. When do you want to sell something? Actually, this also tests your so-called business ability. We buy a stock, and in the end, assuming we are making this price difference, you strictly must sell it. It’s just, when do you sell it? At what value do you sell it? Or when can you sell it for the best price?

A big brother asked me before, “Have you studied why Buffett sold Wells Fargo? Why did he sell BRD?” He said he couldn’t understand these two. I said if you don’t understand, why ask? Of course I don’t understand either.

He said, “Then I want to ask you, since you have some long-term holdings, when will you sell your Tesla?” Damn, this really stumped me. When do I sell?

We generally say, if it is not like what I imagined, I will sell it. But you know this timing is actually hard to catch. Usually when you know, the price might have already dropped by half or something. If you want a more fool-proof approach, it is to slowly sell it according to the position limit or something. But I always feel that selling is a big study. How do you grasp that this place is the best price the market can give it currently? In physical sales too, where to sell this thing, how to sell it to people, I think selling things is a big challenge.

Actually he said he sells things inaccurately. He might buy things very accurately, but selling… every time he sells, the stock price has already halved. So I always feel that selling things is a big challenge. And here he emphasizes a key point to you: if you can create, you can build, and you can sell, woooow, then you are really invincible.

I believe this, but I think “selling” is a lifelong subject. Whether selling products or selling stocks, it is a relatively difficult challenge.

Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage.

The next item, a 3-piece set of equipment. First is “specific knowledge”. Second, “accountability”, I think is “accountability/responsibility”. And “leverage”. You must equip yourself with these 3 things.

Specific knowledge is knowledge that you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else, and replace you.

What is “Specific knowledge”? Let’s see how it’s explained. He says this knowledge is what you cannot be “trained for”. You cannot simply be trained to have it. If society can train you, it means it can also train another person to replace you.

So I think you can directly imagine it as… maybe some certificates. Certificates, everyone thinks it’s a certification of my knowledge, right? But actually, this certificate might be obtained by hundreds or thousands of people a year. Then what exactly is special about you?

It’s just that you may get a threshold because of this, but actually at the same time it also represents that there are hundreds or thousands of people who can replace you at any time.

Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now.

He says how to find “Specific knowledge”? You can obtain it by “pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion in your heart” rather than looking at… maybe looking at what is the hottest thing outside, “I want to learn that kind of thing”. Because that way you won’t find this “Specific knowledge”.

Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others.

I find the latter part very interesting. He says “Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others.”

To you, this thing will look like playing, but others will think you are working. And this thing is a symbol that you are “Building specific knowledge”.

When specific knowledge is taught, it’s through apprenticeships, not schools.

And when this specific knowledge is taught, it is generally through “apprenticeships”, not “schools”. That is to say, this kind of special knowledge cannot be learned in school. Generally, it is through apprenticeship, like a certain master teaching you.

Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative. It cannot be outsourced or automated.

Specific knowledge is generally highly technical and highly creative. It cannot be outsourced or automated.

After reading this, I had an idea. It’s a bit like… cram schools will teach you some, for example, writing classes. After you finish the writing class, can you become a novelist? Fuck no, of course not. After reading it, you might know how to express correctly, how to paragraph, how the beginning, development, transition and conclusion of my story should be. But after finishing this class, you cannot become a great master.

But if you follow a writing master today, and he transmits his observations and perceptions of society directly to you… taking this kind of thing might be hard to put into words. He may only rely on feeling and the accumulation of time. You follow this master, he transmits some things to you. If you take this thing to open a class later, it might be harder to tell everyone exactly how to do this. I think this is similar to what he mentioned. This thing can be transmitted through “apprenticeships”, through a master, but if you want to open a class, if you want to quantify it, it is relatively difficult.

And because it is a relatively difficult thing to quantify, naturally it is harder to replace. It is full of creativity, it is full of technical things.

I think if you figure this out, you will also understand why… in your opinion it looks like “play”, but in “others’” opinion it looks like “work”.

Others will think that you are following a master doing a very hard thing, and they will think you are working. But actually, you will feel you are playing, because this thing is not like how we usually go to class, where he directly spreads out all the knowledge for you, and what you want is to memorize it all and then integrate it.

It’s more like you are exploring yourself. And because you are exploring things that no one has walked, or few people have walked these paths, so… itself will make you irreplaceable. And at the same time, you yourself feel it’s full of some fun, but others can’t see it. Others will think “what the hell are you doing, this thing is very hard”. I would interpret it this way myself.

Embrace accountability, and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage.

The next part is the 2nd piece of the 3-piece set: “accountability”. You must “take business risks under your own name”. You must use your own name to shoulder some risks in business. In this way, “society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage”.

Society will return you. What 3 things? It sees you as a responsible person. It rewards you with equity, and rewards you with leverage.

How to say this here? Of course, thinking you are a responsible person, there is nothing to say about this, because you dare to shoulder risks, you dare to gamble with your own name.

And “equity and leverage”? I think I can use Holger Chen (Genghis Khan Gym) and Froggy (Taipei City Councilor/YouTuber) as examples. Both are very famous people in their circles, and both are people who dare to take responsibility with their own names.

Like Holger Chen, if he wants to open a new gym today, there must be a pile of money ready to be thrown at him. This is certain. He won’t lack money at all. As long as he wants to do something, piles of money will go down.

Froggy implies the same. Even if many people say “Ah, that ‘Working Is Not Watching’ (NSFW Studio) raises a bunch of people, simply doesn’t make money or whatever shit”, but it doesn’t matter at all. If he assumes he wants to open something else today, a pile of people will also throw money at him, even knowing that this thing may not necessarily make money.

Leverage? Of course, using their own names, they can certainly get a lot of leverage. He can borrow money, loan more money. So besides getting equity, he can also get greater leverage.

As for the equity part, it’s not necessarily that he advocates creating a new business himself. Maybe others need his help, others need his collaboration, and they can also distribute shares to him.

So under the framework of accountability, because he shoulders a lot of responsibilities, and naturally in society everyone feels such a person is trustworthy… Although, of course, there will definitely be many people who hate you, that’s normal. Any famous person has a bunch of people hating them. What I mean is, as long as there are enough people in this circle who support him and like him, he can really obtain these 3 things.

The most accountable people have singular, public, and risky brands: Oprah, Trump, Kanye, Elon.

These most responsible people, people who dare to shoulder responsibility the most, people who can be held accountable the most, they generally have “singular, public, and risky brands”.

Like Oprah, like Trump, like Kanye, like Elon. They all are.

Froggy and Holger Chen whom I just mentioned are the same. His brand hangs there. Why is he a person with accountability? Because his business is right there. His business is publicly there. So he is a person who has something to lose. For these people, I think they are some relatively trustworthy people in society. That’s the general framework.

And I also want to emphasize, surely some people will specifically dislike Froggy, specifically dislike Holger Chen or something. But you have to say, they are doing very well in that circle. And it is also because of such a background condition, that is, he also has a singular, high-risk brand. Things like this, in themselves, will bring him some advantages.

Maybe it’s also because, as Naval said, because your brand is singular, public, and relatively high-risk, so you will be more reliable.

It means you have nothing else. You take this thing as the main body. Then you must maintain this thing well. You must maintain its reputation well. Then you must shoulder the responsibility fully. So because of this, you become a more reliable person. I think his meaning is this.

“Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I will move the earth.” - Archimedes

And finally, the last of the 3-piece set: “leverage”. He first quotes Archimedes: “Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I will move the earth.”

Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media).

“Fortunes require leverage”. Wealth requires leverage.

“Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media).”

What does it mean? It means business leverage has several sources. First is the leverage of capital. Second is the leverage of personnel. And third is the leverage of products.

What does the leverage of products say? It means expecting to copy it, the cost is extremely low. Like you sell software. You make a software, maybe requiring a lot of energy. But selling 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000 copies of this software is extremely low cost for you.

Used to stick to physical channels, there might still be some costs. When you go online, just let them download it. So basically there is no cost. “Huge profit with small capital” (一本萬利) talks about this kind of thing. In the future these things all belong to “business leverage”.

Capital means money. To raise money, apply your specific knowledge, with accountability, and show resulting good judgment.

The “capital” part is talking about money. If you want to raise funds, you must apply your “specific knowledge”. He mentioned this kind of special knowledge before, which is knowledge different from others. And you need to have “accountability”, you need to be accountable, be a reliable person. And show the resulting “good judgment”. Because you have such things, so it is a proof, so you have good judgment.

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.

Then comes the 2nd type, leverage of personnel and labor. He says “labor means people working for you”. Labor means someone comes to work for you? This is the oldest form of leverage. “Labor leverage” will make your “parents” feel very proud (“impress your parents”). It feels like your family thinks “Wow, so many people are working for you, that’s amazing.”

But, you shouldn’t waste your life chasing such a goal.

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.

“Capital and labor”, capital and personnel, they are “permissioned leverage”. It implies one must obtain permission, one must obtain consent, to open such leverage.

Because everyone is chasing “capital”, everyone is pursuing having more capital. But capital like this… someone has to give it to you to have it. So it is a “permissioned leverage”. Someone has to agree, to permit you, for you to have it.

And everyone wants to lead others, but someone also has to agree to follow you, for you to be a leader. So if you want to have leverage of capital and labor, you essentially have to obtain others’ consent before you can open such leverage.

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.

But “product” leverage, “code and media”, as mentioned just now, media and code, this thing is “permissionless leverage”. It is a leverage that does not require permission. And they are the leverage used by the new generation of the rich. The new tech tycoons you see now are all using large amounts of such leverage.

You can create software. “Media”, any form of media like text, video, or voice, podcasts, YouTube, like blogs, these are all part of media. And they will work for you while you sleep.

An army of robots is freely available - it’s just packed in data centers for heat and space efficiency. Use it.

This point is actually something many people will ignore. Everyone might talk about “Ah AWS, GCP, Azure”, you all talk about it. But in reality, have you used it? Like when we open a website ourselves, we know. In the past, to make a website, you had to maintain a server. And the server cost was not cheap. Renting a server was not cheap. But now there are AWS, GCP. Even if you have thousands of people coming in every month, for you it might just be an expense of a few hundred bucks.

So now, for these large data centers, everyone speculating in stocks will talk about data centers. But maybe a bunch of people don’t know what a data center is. The service it provides is like this. It means you can actually very easily let this whole army of robots work for you, the whole army of data centers work for you. And basically it is super cheap. As long as you know how to use it, it can help a lot. So you must use it.

If you can’t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts.

If you can’t Code, you don’t know how to do Coding, don’t know how to write code… “write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts”. The boss’s suggestion to you: if you can’t write code, go write books, go write blogs, go record videos, go make podcasts.

Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgement.

Leverage is a “force multiplier” to amplify your “judgment”. You can even think of it as an amplifier. Leverage is an amplifier. You input the original signal, and through leverage, the sound can be amplified very loud. Whether in the stock market or in the physical business market, actually the principle is the same. Let’s talk about the stock market. Leverage, if you are in a situation where you are making money, will let you earn faster. Losing money will let you lose faster. In business, if your business model is bad, through greater leverage you will enter the coffin faster. But if the business model is good, putting greater leverage, you accelerate achieving your goal.

Even for things he mentioned above, leveraging like making videos and podcasts, actually has pros and cons. Usually you post stuff in your echo chamber, and maybe because your echo chamber sees it, “Ah everyone sees it and thinks hey not bad”, giving you likes.

But today you might record a video, record a podcast, and everyone finds that, damn, you are fundamentally an idiot. Accelerated your social death. So leverage itself is a double-edged sword. It is a thing that can “force multiplier”, forcibly adding to your “judgment”. If your judgment is good, then your result is good. If your judgment is bad, then of course it’s bad.

Judgement requires experience, but can be built faster by learning foundational skills.

You must shape your judgment through “experience”. But he has a method to accelerate shaping it: through “learning foundational skills”. Mentioned later, you can learn some basic, foundational skills to shape your judgment.

There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes.

First, a very funny thing down front. There is no skill called “business”, called doing business. You must avoid these “business magazines”, you must avoid these “business classes”.

I totally agree with this. You going to learn these so-called business classes, business magazines, you cannot possibly shape your so-called “edge” in business through this way. Because this thing cannot be transmitted through this kind of course method to let you so-called acquire some business skills.

You might be able to learn some accounting, some marketing or whatever. But basically, doing those things won’t be of any big help to your business. Simply put, these things you should have known long ago. Knowing them won’t give you any acceleration.

Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers.

So what kind of “skill set” is useful?

“Microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers”. These things are what he thinks… some skill sets that will be helpful to everyone.

Microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers. These abilities are abilities you can use to accelerate shaping your “judgment”.

Reading is faster than listening. Doing is faster than watching.

“Reading” is faster than “listening”. And “doing” is faster than “watching” from the side. I think this is a cliché.

The way to most easily obtain the highest knowledge density is through “reading”, this is the fastest. I think “listening” is also a very good way to obtain knowledge. Because listening can fill those times when you may not be able to read. For example, you are commuting today, and you obtain knowledge through “listening”. I think this is a good way.

It’s just that if you compare “reading” and watching videos, “reading” is definitely the fastest. Because both require you to free up your attention and stare with your eyes… reading books is definitely faster than watching videos. So this tells you some ways to accelerate.

You should be too busy to “do coffee," while still keeping an uncluttered calendar.

You should feel so busy that you don’t even have time to drink coffee (“do coffee”), because really too busy. But at the same time, your calendar is not completely jammed. This means that in the big picture, you arrange… arrange carefully, let yourself have leeway. But when doing every single thing, you should commit fully directly.

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.

The part behind is very interesting. It says you must set an “aspirational personal hourly rate”.

It implies you define what your current hourly wage is. How much is one hour of yours worth? For example, if I want to define my own hourly wage, it is my outside income, my podcast income, plus my stock income, and then divide it by my working hours. That is what my hourly wage is.

Like this year, the hourly wage is lower because stocks are losing money. But I’m saying in the past… “Eh, damn, actually the hourly wage was quite high”. I indeed use this method to think. So after my hourly wage is calculated, if I go to solve a problem today… my wife asks me to do something, and if I solve this problem, the money saved is less than my hourly wage, I will ignore it.

Sometimes the wife will ask you to do some things, ask you to wash dishes or something. But the problem is, my time is like this. Washing dishes, that tiny thing… I find someone to wash. Actually, this is better for all of us. If the wife can accept it, outsource this thing.

So it is also written later, if you outsource such a job today, and the actual cost is lower than your hourly wage, outsource it all. Time is the most important. If a problem, if you solve it, it won’t be higher than your hourly wage, don’t solve it. Don’t waste time.

And if outsourcing can save more costs, can be more cost-effective than your hourly wage, then definitely outsource such things.

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.

At the same time, work as hard as you can. Even if you know that “who you work with” and “what you work on” are more important than “how hard you work”. But, you still have to work very hard.

Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.

Try your best to become the top expert in your field. Repeat it constantly. Redefine it constantly. “Until this is true”. Just saying, hurry up and find your own direction, and then try to reach the top in the direction you are doing.

There are no get rich quick schemes. That’s just someone else getting rich off you.

This is the thing that happens most often in society. There isn’t any “get rich quick scheme”. The methods you see are “someone else getting rich off you”.

So I really feel there are too many things like this. I am embarrassed to say it out, blocking everyone’s fortune. If it was the program two years ago, I could give you examples one by one here. Like some things outside that look very high-profile, actually rely on framing money from you.

But I later found out, there is no need to block people’s fortune. If you are stupid, you deserve to be framed. You have to know, honestly there is no way to get rich quickly. Those who tell you “Ah, how to create wealth quickly” and collect a sum of money from you… the point is exactly that sum of money he collects from you.

Apply specific knowledge, with leverage, and eventually you will get what you deserve.

I feel very strongly here. It says you apply the “specific knowledge” mentioned earlier… you explore yourself, you explore your passion, and the special knowledge you found… putting on leverage, eventually you will get what you deserve.

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.

But when you finally have money, actually you will realize, this wasn’t what you were looking for in the first place. But well, that is a topic for another day.

I hope this sharing is helpful to everyone. Maybe some people will say “Eh, it looks like it doesn’t completely relate 100% to that QA, question 2”. I feel my brain is just like this. I will jump around to think. After he asked that question, the first thing I thought of was actually that section in the front. Those people who gain their own status and position by criticizing others. And actually there are these things behind, which are also things that changed me greatly.

But I’m not saying these things changed me only after seeing him. Because 2018 was already taking off again. So it’s not that I had feelings after reading this, but after reading this, I also hope… someone could have told me these things earlier. Although they may not be very brand new concepts. It’s just he assembled them to let you understand. But I think these things are some thinking methods found particularly effective during one’s own growth process. These methods can also let you achieve your goals faster. Today we are not talking about “financial freedom, work freedom, be your own boss”, that kind of bullshit talk.

The point is we want to achieve what we want to do. Then we can have more ample time, and know more clearly how to make adjustments, to make one’s life healthier and more balanced.

In the end, what we want to pursue is actually this: How can we succeed in career, and at the same time take care of family and body well? Those words elders say… what you treated as bullshit before… “Your wealth is the several 0s behind, and health is the 0 and 1 in front.” You used to laugh, but now you will agree.

If you don’t have health, everything is fake. If you don’t have family, everything is fake. Okay, that’s about it. Share with everyone.

Reference

• Naval on Twitter: “How to Get Rich (without getting lucky):” / Twitter
• How to Get Rich - YouTube
• EP290 | 🕸 • Gooaye 股癌