How to get rich (without getting lucky) by Naval

Part 3 of The Naval Ravikant Resources Library

Naval’s iconic Twitter thread on building wealth is a must-read for anyone striving to create enduring success. Here’s the full thread, with an explanation of each point:

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1. Seek wealth, not money or status.
   Wealth is owning assets that make money for you while you’re asleep, like stocks, real estate, or a business. Money is just a tool to trade wealth. Status? That’s just trying to look cool on Instagram. Example: Elon Musk is wealthy because he owns Tesla and SpaceX, but someone driving a luxury car to impress people might just be chasing status.

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1. Understand that ethical wealth creation is possible.
   If you think all rich people are evil, you’ll sabotage your own efforts to build wealth. Example: Patagonia’s founder became wealthy while staying true to environmental values. He proved you can make money and do good.

2. Ignore people playing status games.
   They tear others down to boost themselves. Focus on building something valuable instead. Example: Instead of arguing with trolls on Twitter, create a product or write content that helps others.

3. You’re not going to get rich renting out your time.
   Even if you’re a high-paid lawyer or consultant, you’ll eventually hit a ceiling because there are only so many hours in a day. Example: Jeff Bezos got rich because he owns equity in Amazon, not because he worked hourly at a job.

4. You will get rich by giving society what it wants but doesn’t yet know how to get. At scale.
   Create something people need but can’t easily access yet, and make it scalable. Example: Uber solved the problem of finding rides quickly, and they scaled it to millions of users worldwide.

5. Pick an industry where you can play long-term games with long-term people.
   Trustworthy relationships compound over time. Example: Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have been business partners for decades, and their trust in each other has helped Berkshire Hathaway thrive.

6. The Internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers.
   You can now monetize almost any skill online. Example: A gamer like Ninja makes millions streaming on Twitch. Twenty years ago, that wasn’t even a career option.

7. Play iterated games.
   Success builds over time through repeated efforts. Example: Compounding interest in investments, long-term friendships that grow deeper, or a consistent YouTube channel that builds an audience over time.

8. Pick business partners with high intelligence, energy, and, above all, integrity.
   Smart, hardworking people are great, but without integrity, they’ll cut corners. Example: Would you trust someone like Steve Wozniak (Apple co-founder) or someone with shady business practices?

9. Don’t partner with cynics and pessimists.
   If someone believes everything will fail, their negativity will drag you down. Example: Would you start a company with someone who spends all day saying, “That’ll never work”? Probably not.

10. Learn to sell. Learn to build.
    These are the two most valuable skills. Example: Mark Zuckerberg can build a product, and Sheryl Sandberg knows how to sell and scale it. Together, they’re unstoppable.

11. Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage.
    Example: If you’re great at coding and you publicly take responsibility for a product, you’ll attract investors and partners who give you leverage.

12. Specific knowledge is knowledge you cannot be trained for.
    It’s unique to you and hard to copy. Example: If you’re a genius at creating viral TikToks, no school can teach someone else to replicate your exact creativity.

13. Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your curiosity and passion.
    If you’re genuinely obsessed with something, you’ll develop rare expertise. Example: Someone who loves photography and spends years perfecting it might create a world-class portfolio.

14. Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but work to others.
    Example: A programmer who loves coding might spend hours debugging, which feels fun to them but exhausting to others.

15. When specific knowledge is taught, it’s through apprenticeships, not schools.
    Example: You’ll learn filmmaking faster by shadowing a director than sitting in a classroom.

16. Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative.
    It’s unique and hard to automate. Example: AI can’t replace a musician’s creativity or a data scientist’s complex problem-solving.

17. Embrace accountability and take risks under your name.
    Example: Elon Musk publicly tied his name to Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter. It’s risky, but he reaps the rewards because he owns the outcomes.

18. The most accountable people have singular, public, and risky brands.
    Example: Oprah’s name carries massive trust, and her brand is her accountability.

19. “Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I will move the earth.” - Archimedes
    This is about leverage. It multiplies the impact of your effort.

20. Fortunes require leverage.
    Leverage comes from capital (money), labor (people), or products with zero marginal cost of replication (code or media).

21. Capital means money.
    Example: An investor funds your startup because they trust your judgment and expertise.

22. Labor means people working for you.
    Example: Hiring employees to scale your operations, like Amazon’s massive workforce.

23. Capital and labor are permissioned leverage.
    Someone has to grant you access to them. Example: A bank approves your loan or people agree to work for you.

24. Code and media are permissionless leverage.
    Example: Writing a blog or creating software doesn’t require anyone’s permission, but it can scale massively.

25. An army of robots is freely available—it’s just packed in data centers.
    Example: Cloud computing like AWS allows you to scale without building your own servers.

26. If you can’t code, write books, blogs, record videos, or podcasts.
    Example: If you’re not a software engineer, create a YouTube channel or write an eBook to leverage media.

27. Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgment.
    Example: If you make good decisions, leverage (like a team or technology) amplifies the impact of those decisions.

28. Judgment requires experience, but it can be built faster by learning foundational skills.
    Example: Learn critical thinking and decision-making by reading great books and studying successful people.

29. There is no skill called “business.”
    Business isn’t a standalone skill; it’s a mix of judgment, selling, building, and leadership. Example: Avoid wasting time on business classes and focus on practical skills.

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