Book Review and Summary: The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant — A Guide To Wealth And Happiness — By Eric Jorgenson

Note: This book summary is based on my personal understanding and viewpoint.

I heard Naval Ravikant in a podcast and I got absorbed in his thought process. After the podcast, I decided to read this book.

As per the author, Every attempt is made to present Naval in his own words. However, please interpret generously.

Who is Naval Ravikant: Throughout his career, Naval has generously shared his wisdom, and millions of people around the world follow his advice on building wealth and living happily.

Naval Ravikant is an icon in Silicon Valley and startup culture around the world. He founded multiple successful companies. He is also an angel investor.

More than a financial success, Naval has been sharing his own philosophy of life and happiness, attracting readers and listeners throughout the world.

Naval is broadly followed because he is a rare combination of successful and happy.

1. Wealth

Making money is not a thing you do — it’s a skill you learn.

Understand How Wealth Is Created

I like to think that if I lost all my money and you dropped me on a random street in any English-speaking country, within five or ten years I’d be wealthy again because it’s just a skillset I’ve developed that anyone can develop.

Getting rich is about knowing what to do, who to do it with, and when to do it. It is much more about understanding than purely hard work.

Nuggets of Wisdom:

· 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.

· 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 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.

· 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 you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else and replace you.

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

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

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

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

· 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.

· Intentions don’t matter. Actions do. That’s why being ethical is hard.

If you want to be wealthy, you want to figure out which one of those things you can provide for society that it does not yet know how to get but it will want and providing it is natural to you, within your skill set, and within your capabilities. Then, you have to figure out how to scale it.

Focus on the thing that you are really into. The great news is because every human is different, everyone is the best at something — being themselves.

“Escape competition through authenticity.” Basically, when you’re competing with people, it’s because you’re copying them. It’s because you’re trying to do the same thing. But every human is different. Don’t copy.

The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner. You have to know how to learn anything you want to learn. It’s much more important today to be able to become an expert in a brand new field in nine to twelve months than to have studied the “right” thing a long time ago.

You should be very thoughtful and realize in most things (relationships, work, even in learning) what you’re trying to do is find the thing you can go all-in on to earn compound interest.

To get rich, you need leverage. Leverage comes in labor, comes in capital, or it can come through code or media.

There’s not really that much to fear in terms of failure, and so people should take on a lot more accountability than they do.

When you do things for their own sake, you create your best work.

No one is going to value you more than you value yourself. You just have to set a very high personal hourly rate and you have to stick to it.

One of the things I think is important to make money is having a reputation that makes people do deals through you. Your character and your reputation are things you can build, which will let you take advantage of opportunities other people may characterize as lucky, but you know it wasn’t luck.

Your real resume is just a catalog of all your suffering.

You have your four limbs, your brain, your head, your skin — that’s all for granted. You have to do hard things anyway to create your own meaning in life.

Judgment is underrated. Wisdom is knowing the long-term consequences of your actions. Wisdom applied to external problems is judgment.

What you feel tells you nothing about the facts — it merely tells you something about your estimate of the facts.

It’s actually really important to have empty space. If you don’t have a day or two every week in your calendar where you’re not always in meetings, and you’re not always busy, then you’re not going to be able to think.

A calm mind, a fit body, and a house full of love. These things cannot be bought. They must be earned.

2. Happiness

Happiness is learned.

Don’t take yourself so seriously. You’re just a monkey with a plan.

Happiness definition keeps evolving.

Everything is perfect exactly the way it is. It is only in our particular minds we are unhappy or not happy, and things are perfect or imperfect because of what we desire.

Happiness, love, and passion…aren’t things you find — they’re choices you make.

A happy person isn’t someone who’s happy all the time.

It’s someone who effortlessly interprets events in such a way that they don’t lose their innate peace.

Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.

You can get almost anything you want out of life, as long as it’s one thing and you want it far more than anything else.

The reality is life is a single-player game. You’re born alone. You’re going to die alone. All of your interpretations are alone. All your memories are alone. You’re gone in three generations, and nobody cares. Before you showed up, nobody cared. It’s all single player.

Doctors won’t make you healthy.

Nutritionists won’t make you slim.

Teachers won’t make you smart.

Gurus won’t make you calm.

Mentors won’t make you rich.

Trainers won’t make you fit.

Ultimately, you have to take responsibility.

Save yourself.

When everyone is sick, we no longer consider it a disease.

Ironically, fasting (from a low-carb/paleo base) is easier than portion control. Once the body detects food, it overrides the brain.

“I don’t have time” is just another way of saying “It’s not a priority.” If something is your number one priority, then you will do it. If you’ve got a fuzzy basket of ten or fifteen different priorities, you’re going to end up getting none of them.

Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.

Meditation is turning off society and listening to yourself. It only “works” when done for its own sake. Hiking is walking meditation. Journaling is writing meditation. Praying is gratitude meditation. Showering is accidental meditation. Sitting quietly is direct meditation.

If there’s something you want to do later, do it now. There is no “later.”

Anger is its own punishment. An angry person trying to push your head below water is drowning at the same time.

Inspiration is perishable — act on it immediately.

Conclusion:

I find this book very deep in thoughts. I like Naval’s philosopher side better than his wealth quotes.

I enjoyed going through the book. Hopefully, you too.