| The Mental Codes of an Indian-American Entrepreneur |
As much as I know reading books is a good habit to develop, it has always been difficult for me to start reading one, and even more so to get through an entire volume.
But this is one of those short reads that kept me interested enough to finish in just one week and had an immediate positive impact.
Thank you to my friend YL who recommended this book to me, as I would like to recommend it to you too if you want to learn a few nuggets of wisdom.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Yes, that is the name of the book.
Forgive my ignorance, but I did not know who Naval was until I came across this book.
In case you don’t know him, he is kind of a big-shot entrepreneur and venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, most famous for co-founding AngelList and investing in 200+ companies including Uber, Twitter, and Clubhouse. See here for more details.
The book is a collection of Naval’s thoughts and advice that he shared over the years via tweets, interviews, blog posts, podcasts and talks. It has two main sections: “Wealth” and “Happiness”, two of his most explored topics.
What is more noble is that the 242-page book of wisdom is offered to the world for free. Therefore, there should be no excuse not to at least skim through what the famous Silicon Valley icon has to offer on health, wealth and happiness.
Thank you Eric Jorgenson for bringing life to this book.
What I Like
Reading this book is almost like hearing Naval speak directly. The messages are clear and straightforward. Business-minded readers would love it as the content is quite easy to digest.
I found some of his views particularly insightful as they resonate with my general beliefs about success and well-being.
Below are my six favorite takeaways:
Insight #1: “Learn to sell, learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.”
It sounds simple, but the underlying message is quite profound.
Selling represents your ability to persuade and convince. Lawyers, bankers, marketers, actors and actresses, real estate agents are typical professions that require solid selling skills.
Building means your ability to create and construct. Computer programmers, engineers, painters, composers, writers are all producers of their domain expertise.
You will be doing quite well if you excel at just one of these two skills.
But if you can be great at both (i.e. a geek + a hustler), you will reach the pinnacle at your particular field of work.
Why doesn’t school teach us that?
Insight #2: “Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media).”
Whether one can be wealthy boils down to how skilful one can manage labor, money and technology.
The key lesson here is to grow wealth exponentially by utilizing these three levers to continuously reduce the most expensive cost in our lives:
Time.
You get people to do more of the work. You invest your savings to generate more capital. You use technology to reach customers efficiently and offer products and services both online and offline.
While leveraging labor and leveraging capital have been traditional ways through which people build their fortunes, technology has emerged over the last two decades as the third lever of wealth creation.
Labor leverage = leadership and management skills
Capital leverage = investment skills
Technology leverage = coding and “internet” skills
I wish I understood this powerful notion of “leverage” when I was in university.
Insight #3: Learning foundational skills is more important than getting super deep into things
I think this applies more towards people who strive to be investors, leaders or managers of their own industries.
While foundational knowledge and skills are more crucial throughout your life, having your edge that is sufficiently specialized is also key to differentiating.
Therefore, laying a solid foundation is just as necessary as getting deep into your key area(s), but getting “super” deep is not.
Insight #4: Be an “optimistic contrarian”
I think everyone should aim to become an optimistic contrarian.
Naval believes in being positive as optimists tend to do better in the long run.
Citing from the book, “a contrarian isn’t one who always objects – that’s a conformist of a different sort. A contrarian reasons independently from the ground up and resists pressure to conform.”
While the book does not suggest directly that we should all try to be an optimistic contrarian, it does indicate that such a characteristic is very valuable and rare to find, compared to cynics and mimics.
Where are you located on this chart? Think about it for a moment.
In continuation of this topic, Naval also recommended Matt Ridey’s “The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves”, which I am interested in but have yet to read.
Insight #5: The two principles to pass down to your kids are 1) Read everything you can, and 2) Learn the skills of mathematics and persuasion
Reading is one of the most common advice from some of the most successful figures, including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. It is a habit that I wish I developed in a more disciplined way in my childhood, and it is never a bad idea to remind ourselves and our next generation of the power of knowledge acquisition through reading.
According to Naval, mathematics is the foundational language of science and nature, the essential subject on all complex things. Although not everyone likes math, it’s hard to disagree that knowing math is incredibly useful across all verticals.
Learning persuasion is similar to the idea of “learning to sell”. This is one of those underrated subjects that should be a compulsory course at school, together with English and math. It is the vital skill to succeed.
Insight #6: “No one in the world is going to beat you at being you.”
Oftentimes we all wish to be someone else: the peer who always aces the exams, the rival who outperforms you in track and field, the diligent colleague who receives the promotion and top-tier bonus, the boss who owns multiple properties, the financially-free and intelligent mentor with three kids, the celebrities whom you follow and idolize…
The thought of wishing to be someone else who is seemingly a better character may actually depress you. Because you are, by definition, not someone else.
On the other hand, if you have a growth mindset, these people can surely serve as model examples and fuel for your self-motivation.
But the more important point is to believe that each of us is unique in our own way, and that we can all deliver spectacular work that no one else can do better.
As Naval recited from his mentor: “Be yourself, with passionate intensity.”
Why You Should Read it
Three reasons:
- It’s a collection of wisdom and lessons learned from a world-class entrepreneur and investor.
- It’s completely free knowledge. Reading this book will contribute towards your emotional intelligence.
- It’s a very easy read that won’t take up much time to complete. The book took me about a week to finish, and I am a slow reader.
It is less of a self-help, motivational piece, but more of a discovery of truth on wealth, judgment, and happiness through Naval’s experience and perspective.
Read it and let me know what you think.
Sherman
Time to Mobilize.
P.S. What Else I am Reading These Days Online
Besides this book, there are numerous discerning articles and reports that can be found online for free. For example:
I was thinking of writing a post to recap the key important events that took place in 2020, since I wrote one for 2020 Q3 (lots about SPACs and EVs), until I found out Howard Marks already did the job in his memo “2020 in Review”.
Paul Graham’s essay on “How People Get Rich Now”. It echoes why I remain deeply interested in technology and finance.
Interesting fact: Pew Research Center published a report in April titled “Social Media Use in 2021”, which stated that YouTube remains king in the US, with 81% usage among the US adult population.