The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness

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If you can’t decide, then the answer is no. We live in abundance. There are countless options to choose from. If, however, you’re evenly split on a difficult decision. Take the path more painful in the short term. Easy decisions, hard life. Hard decisions, easy life. Naval is only 47, so it’s not like he’s coming at this with 90 years or 100 years behind him. I think that is quite inspiring, that you can find that level of acceptance and peace and the ability to have fun and enjoy things, without necessarily having lived your whole life to have that perspective.

The concept of Accountability helped me reconcile this middle ground. Choosing to be accountable is choosing to be responsible for an outcome.The undertaking might be incredibly risky, or not very risky at all. The rewards might be enormous or very tiny. Usually, risk and reward are related. Make a big bet, get a big reward. Your personal set of skills and knowledge can give you an edge knowing where to take on accountability.However, if you want to acquire freedom, the chance to spend more time with your family, help those in need, dance more, or whatever it is that your spiritual self craves, you’re on the right path. For that, you’ll need to learn how to play the money game right. Fearing that you’ll lose what you’ve earned and being unhappy with what you have is an unhealthy approach. Moreover, the end goal isn’t more money, so keep that in mind. 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.” If I say I’m happy, that means I was sad at some point. If I say he’s attractive, then somebody else is unattractive. Every positive thought even has a seed of a negative thought within it and vice versa, which is why a lot of greatness in life comes out of suffering.”

Once you’ve truly controlled your own fate, for better or for worse, you’ll never let anyone else tell you what to do.” Money buys you freedom in the material world. It’s not going to make you happy, it’s not going to solve your health problems, it’s not going to make your family great, it’s not going to make you fit, it’s not going to make you calm. But it will solve a lot of external problems.” It’s a state of joy and bliss and peace. Once you have it, you don’t want to give it up. If you can get a free hour of bliss every morning just by sitting and closing your eyes, that is worth its weight in gold. It will change your life. 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.” It’s almost like you’re taking yourself out of a certain frame and you’re watching things from a different perspective even though you’re in your own mind.I think every human should aspire to being knowledgeable about certain things and being paid for our unique knowledge.”

There are so many ways to create wealth, to create products, to create businesses, and to get paid by society as a byproduct.”The thought that such a mind exists, and we can know about it, learn from it, grow from it: absolutely brilliant. If you’re a perpetual learning machine, you will never be out of options for how to make money. You can always see what’s coming up in society, what the value is, where the demand is, and you can learn to come up to speed.”

Ravikant is a Fellow of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship. [5] As a podcaster he shares advice on pursuing health, wealth, and happiness.My old definition was ‘freedom to.’ Freedom to do anything I want. Freedom to do whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like. Now, the freedom I’m looking for is internal freedom. It’s ‘freedom from.’ Freedom from reaction. Freedom from feeling angry. Freedom from being sad. Freedom from being forced to do things. I’m looking for ‘freedom from,’ internally and externally, whereas before I was looking for ‘freedom to.’“ Your breath is one of the few places where your autonomic nervous system meets your voluntary nervous system. Read "Breathe" Once you can solve your money problems, either by lowering your lifestyle or by making enough money, you want to retire.”