There are few people who communicate as clearly and succinctly as Naval Ravikant. His writing on wealth and happiness really resonates because he takes things I already believe and understand (leverage is key to building wealth) and breaks them down into concrete categories.
There are three types of leverage (labor, capital, and products with no marginal cost to produce—e.g. media and code) and four types of luck.
This weekend I read The Alamac of Naval Ravikant, a book compiled from Naval's writing and podcast episodes.
I enjoyed it so much this issue of the newsletter is dedicated to getting you to dive in on Naval's writing (in 3 lengths):
For the highlights start with his Twitter thread on how to get rich without getting lucky. It's a short encapsulation of his philosphy.
If that tweets got you hooked, check out a compilation epsiode from Naval with all of his thoughts on building wealth. It's 3 hours long and worth every minute. There's also a full transcript if you prefer to read.
Finally, there's the full book compiled and edited by Eric Jorgenson with the forward by Tim Ferriss. I bought the hardcover and read the entire thing this weekend. It's also available for free to read online.
Ian is a true modern artist. His hand lettering is incredible, but I also love how he chooses to share his work. I could watch those time-lapse tutorials all day! I'd recommend following him on Instagram for inspiration or taking one of his courses if you are working on hand lettering yourself!
Read some of Naval's writing and then hit reply and let me know what you think!
-Nathan
I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
Hey Reader, What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? You’ve probably seen some version of this question before. It’s a good one, though sometimes the answer isn’t immediately obvious. That’s why I like Graham Weaver’s 8 questions for what to do with your life. Graham founded the private equity firm Alpine Investors, and he teaches at Stanford. In Chapter 2 of my upcoming book, The Ladders of Wealth, I credit him with a principle he shared with his MBA students called "worse first",...
Hey Reader, If I could solve only one thing in my business, that would have the biggest impact, what would that be? This is the question every great entrepreneur obsesses over. Rather than trying to do everything at once, you look for the bottleneck and focus on solving that. There’s a book called The Goal by an Israeli physicist named Eliyahu Goldratt. It’s a 1984 business novel that business systems nerds love. However if you’re not a business systems nerd you probably… won’t love it. It’s...
Hey Reader, Have you ever spent money on something and immediately felt guilty afterward? Will Guidara spends his money foolishly on purpose. And he thinks you should too. He once bought an entire barrel of whiskey and put it in his basement. He also put a skee-ball machine in the office. Is he going to get a monetary return on either of these things? No. But that’s kind of the point. He calls it the 95/5 rule: Manage your money and time like a maniac 95% of the time (no expense is too...