Naval Ravikant is a well-known angel investor in Silicon Valley. He has invested in Twitter, Uber, and other famous tech companies. He is also a successful entrepreneur who founded the equity crowdfunding platform AngelList.
Naval Ravikant
In The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, there is a brief introduction to his life story:
Born into a poor family in New Delhi, India, Naval immigrated to the United States where he delivered newspapers, washed dishes, and worked in an illegally run catering company, delivering Indian food all around. Even while living in New York, he was still a nobody, with an insignificant family background. At that time, his life model was “a hustling immigrant trying to survive.” Later, he was admitted to Stuyvesant High School, then entered the Ivy League, studying economics and computer science at Dartmouth College. Entering the technology industry completely changed his life. Today, he is an investor with stakes in about 200 companies, advising some, and serving on the boards of others.
Naval once said:
“Suppose one day I start a business and fail, ending up penniless. If you drop me randomly on the streets of any English-speaking country, I believe that within 5 or 10 years I will become wealthy again—because I’ve mastered the skill of making money, and this is a skill anyone can learn. Making money has nothing to do with how hard you work. Even if you work 80 hours a week at a restaurant, you won’t get rich. To create wealth, you must know what to do, who to do it with, and when to do it. Understanding and thinking are more important than hard work.”
From scratch to financial freedom, Naval summarized his understanding of “making money” into one key theme:
How to Get Rich Without Getting Lucky?
On May 31, 2018, Naval Ravikant suddenly released over 30 tweets in one go, laying out his philosophy on how to get rich without relying on luck.
The Tweetstorm
Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth.
Creating wealth and maintaining ethical values are not mutually exclusive. If you despise wealth, it will avoid you.
Ignore people obsessed with status. Their way of gaining status is by attacking those who create wealth.
You can’t get rich renting out your time. You must own equity—a piece of a business—to achieve financial freedom.
One way to create wealth is to provide something society wants but doesn’t yet know how to get, and then scale it.
Learn to think in terms of compounding. All returns in life—wealth, relationships, knowledge—come from compound interest.
Pick an industry with long-term potential. Partner with people you can work with long-term.
Choose business partners who are smart, energetic, and most importantly, trustworthy.
Don’t partner with cynics and pessimists. Their predictions are self-fulfilling.
Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you are unstoppable.
Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage.
Take responsibility. Be willing to take business risks in your own name. Society rewards accountability, equity, and leverage.
Specific knowledge is knowledge that cannot be trained. If society can train you, it can train someone else to replace you.
To gain specific knowledge, follow your genuine curiosity and passion, not trends.
Building specific knowledge should feel like play to you but look like work to others.
Specific knowledge is often passed through apprenticeship, not classroom learning.
Specific knowledge is highly technical or creative and cannot be outsourced or automated.
“Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will move the Earth.” — Archimedes
The internet has massively broadened career opportunities, but most people haven’t realized it yet.
To create wealth, fully apply leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, labor, and products with zero marginal cost of replication (code and media).
Capital is money. To raise money, apply your specific knowledge, accountability, and sound judgment.
Labor leverage is having other people work for you. It’s the oldest and most fought-over form of leverage.
Capital and labor require permission. Everyone wants capital; someone must agree to fund you. Everyone wants to lead; someone must agree to follow.
Code and media are permissionless leverage. They’re the leverage behind the new rich. You can create software and media that work for you while you sleep.
Millions of robots are freely available—concentrated in data centers for efficiency. Use them.
If you can’t code, write books, blogs, record videos, or podcasts.
Leverage multiplies judgment.
Judgment comes from experience, but you can build it faster by learning fundamentals.
There are no real “business” skills. Don’t waste time on business magazines and courses.
Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers.
Read faster than you listen. Do more than you watch.
You should be busy enough to have no time for socializing but still keep a well-organized calendar.
Set a personal hourly rate, and stick to it. If solving a problem saves less than your hourly rate, ignore it. If outsourcing costs less, outsource it.
When you work, work as hard as you can. But who you work with and what you work on matter more than how hard you work.
Strive to be the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining until it is true.
There are no “get rich quick” schemes. If there are, they are trying to get rich off you.
Apply your specific knowledge, leverage, and accountability, and you will get what you deserve.
When you finally become wealthy, you’ll realize it wasn’t what you were actually seeking.
This tweetstorm went viral, translated into many languages, and sparked massive discussions online.
Later in 2020, Eric Jorgenson compiled Naval’s writings and tweets into The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness, published with Naval’s approval. Since release, the book has been a bestseller with nearly 6,000 reviews on Amazon, a 4.7-star rating, and over 80% five-star reviews. The Chinese edition 纳瓦尔宝典 has also recently been released.
Key Concepts from The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
On Wealth
Money is just how we transfer wealth. What you really want is wealth—assets that earn while you sleep. Wealth is factories and robots that produce. Wealth is computer programs that serve customers around the clock. Wealth is money invested in other assets and businesses. Even houses can be wealth if rented out, but compared to business activities, they produce less. Naval defines wealth as businesses and assets that generate income even while you sleep.
On Envy and Status Games
There are two main games in society:
The money game—money can’t solve every problem, but it solves all money-related problems. Everyone understands this and wants to make money. Yet some secretly believe they can’t, so they attack the wealth-creating system, calling money-making evil.
The status game—by rejecting money, people claim moral high ground, seeking recognition. Status games are zero-sum; wealth creation is positive-sum. When you pursue wealth, you may be attacked. Understand: they are playing a different game.
On Compound Interest
Compounding applies not only to capital but also to relationships, trust, and reputation. CEOs and fund managers manage billions because people trust them—trust earned through integrity over decades. Good reputation compounds. Long-term partnerships compound.
On Specific Knowledge
Look back to childhood or youth—what things came easily to you that others found hard? That may be your specific knowledge. It’s shaped by your genes, environment, and responses. Once discovered, keep building it. True specific knowledge feels like play to you but work to others.
On Leverage
Three types of leverage:
Labor leverage—having people work for you. Oldest but hardest to manage.
Capital leverage—using money to amplify results. Dominated the 20th century, but requires permission and skills.
Code & Media leverage—the newest, permissionless form. Products with zero marginal cost of replication (software, media). These create the new billionaires—Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates, Jobs, Rogan, PewDiePie, etc.
The modern divide is no longer rich vs. poor, white-collar vs. blue-collar, but those who use leverage vs. those who don’t.
On Arming Yourself with Knowledge, Accountability, and Leverage
Don’t sell time. Sell knowledge, creativity, and responsibility.
Using real estate as an example:
A handyman earns $10–20/hour—no leverage.
A contractor takes on projects worth tens of thousands, uses labor leverage, assumes responsibility.
A developer buys, rebuilds, and sells properties—adding capital leverage and more responsibility.
A fund manager controls huge amounts of capital—maximum capital leverage.
Finally, an entrepreneur who combines real estate knowledge with tech and finance can create companies like Zillow, Redfin, or Trulia, scaling into billions.
The higher the level, the greater the leverage, responsibility, and need for specific knowledge.
“Productize Yourself”
Naval summarizes his principles in one phrase: Productize Yourself.
Two key elements: “Yourself” (uniqueness, responsibility) and “Productize” (scalability, leverage).
To build lasting wealth, ask yourself:
Is this truly what I want?
Have I productized myself?
Am I scaling—through labor, capital, or code/media?
It may take decades, not to execute, but to think deeply:
What unique value can I provide?
How much responsibility can I take?
What levers can I pull?
Book Recommendation
Wealth isn’t just luck. Happiness doesn’t fall from the sky. Both are skills we can—and must—learn.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant collects the principles of one of Silicon Valley’s most insightful angel investors. It explores how to create wealth without luck, how to use knowledge and leverage, and how to live a happier life.
Naval’s reflections on wealth and life can help you walk your own unique path—towards greater wealth and deeper happiness.
Author Profile
Sean Lee
Freely.work Founder,15 years as a freelancer/digital nomad.Marketing consultant for Fortune Global 500 companies, digital marketing expert.
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