Naval Ravikant on Wealth and Happiness
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant is one of the best books I have picked up this year. Naval Raviknat is an entrepreneur and an investor whose philosophies about wealth, life, and happiness are written down by Eric Jorgenson. Naval’s wisdom is provided meticulously and provides a lot of learnings that are easy to understand and apply in real life.
Naval shares his classic wisdom with the mix of science and rationality combining them with all the hardships he went through to become what he has now become. Overall this book is a genuine guide to live a healthy and wealthy life. He provides not only philosophies but also a simple guide to accumulate wealth and live a happy life.
Some of the important lessons that can be learned from the book and those that can be applied in daily life to better your life are as follows.
Wealth creation
Wealth creation is a skill that can be learned by anyone, with proper investment of time on learning, it can be mastered and everyone who has mastered the skill can live a rich life. Don’t confuse money with wealth, money is something that finishes once spend but wealth is something that builds even when you are asleep. Naval suggests we create leverage that will ultimately build wealth and he separates leverage into three specifics.
1. Specific knowledge
Having a specific knowledge in any field gives you leverage. Take an example of a high-end surgeon, they earn a lot of money because of the specific in-depth knowledge they possess.
2. Capital
Build your own business or own equity of a business, this will allow you high leverage of earning money while you sleep. Investment in real states, stock markets, and various other forms of income-generating assets is also a form of leveraging your capital.
3. Products and digital contents
Invest your time creating products and content that are capable of reaching millions of people and providing value to them. Once a system of contents or products is built money is passively generated then on.
Naval is a believer in compounding and he believes that all great things like health, relationships, and wealth are the results of compounding and through the use of compounding in wealth creation he suggests ways in which wealth can be accumulated.
A skill that can be learned and practiced to earn money is easily accessible to everyone and Naval suggests everyone start learning using various means such as books and podcasts and develop that skill to get wealthy.
Happiness is created
Naval portrays that happiness like wealth is also a skill that can be practiced and achieved. Happiness is not a destination. It’s not a success. It’s not money. Naval calls it a skill that we all can learn.
Happiness has a different meaning for all, for him, it is the freedom to live peacefully and defining our happiness gives us the freedom to live a happy life. Taking control over your own life allows you to live a happy life.
All the anxiety and overthinking happen when the mind is not at rest. The moment we’re are the happiest is when our mind is at rest. What we need is peace of mind and over simulations.
“The mind should be a servant, not the master.”
Every freedom we crave, every sense of peace we crave can all be achieved within our minds. When we train our mind to be happy and be at peace it is attainable. The external factors play a little role in determining our happiness level. Train your mind to be at peace and define a meaning of happiness for yourself. Once defined that level can be attained with patience and practice.
Naval strongly suggests everybody develop a reading habit and learn new things daily as he states that reading is such a habit that can be leveraged into many things. Also, he suggests we start eating healthy and reducing the processed foods from our diet.
With the real-life application of various lessons and wisdom, Eric Jogerson has beautifully composed Naval words into a binding. The wisdom of Naval Ravikant is comparatively different than that of other philosophers and quite helpful too and hence I highly recommend this book to everyone.
