A little less than 6 years ago, Naval Ravikant broke down the exact playbook on how to get rich (without getting lucky).
Who’s Naval Ravikant? He’s the co-founder, chairman and former CEO of AngelList with a net worth of over $65 million (you can read more about him here).
Basically everybody you can name has used this exact playbook to get to the top, whether they have done so consciously or not.
While, I’ve linked his original tweetstorm above, which I highly recommend you read, I’ll sum it up in this letter while expanding upon the importing points and how they can be used practically today.
According to Naval Ravikant, you only need 3 things to be rich :
Specific knowledge
Accountability
Leverage
Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage.
— Naval (@naval)
8:29 AM • May 31, 2018
Specific Knowledge
Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now.
— Naval (@naval)
8:30 AM • May 31, 2018
Specific knowledge is knowledge tied to your personal experiences, passions and achievements.
Since it’s personal, it cannot be taught in the same way by a Harvard or Stanford, if somebody wishes to learn it, they must come to you.
Organizing is a domain of specific knowledge for Marie Kondo. You might be able to learn how to organize stuff, but it isn’t quite the same as learning from Kondo herself is it?
Nomad Capitalist can teach you how to manage your finances while living all across the world and paying low taxes for high benefits. That’s specific knowledge.
Ali Abdaal has productivity.
Dan Koe has writing.
I have newsletters.
Are you starting to get it?
Specific knowledge cannot be learnt through books, it is learnt through direct experience and apprenticeships.
This is the type of knowledge that people will pay premiums for.
You need to scour your mind to find out the domain of specific knowledge, you have interest and authority in.
It might be about getting into a specific educational institution, how to do laundry correctly, how to find the latest tax loophole, or literally anything else.
Try to be specific, you might be a salesman with terrific time management. Your domain of specific knowledge in that case is not ‘time management’, it’s ‘time management for salesman’.
I’d love it if you went even more specific like ‘time management for B2B salesmen who work commission only’.
I am serious, do not be afraid to go niche.
I know an elderly woman who makes over $10,000 per month teaching people how to knit online (yes, knitting like your grandma used to do).
Once you have specific knowledge down, it’s time to figure out the most tricky part of all of this - accountability.
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Accountability
The most accountable people have singular, public, and risky brands: Oprah, Trump, Kanye, Elon.
— Naval (@naval)
8:33 AM • May 31, 2018
The corporate world has still not figured this one out.
They’re starting to though - more and more people working upper management at large companies are being told to be active on social media.
Less corporate relations, more human relations.
Let’s dial it back a bit.
You remember the day everyone found out Kylie Jenner became the world’s youngest billionaire?
This is similar to how I reacted that day :
All of my sulking aside, there was a lesson to be learnt in there that I (along with many others) missed.
Basically every person you can name who has made ridiculous money has done it by taking on massive accountability.
But this isn’t accountability in the same way that you might think.
They have created brands for which they are the face of.
This gives them the best and worst of all worlds.
They can leverage good (or bad) publicity to drive people to their products.
Their products makes them more successful.
They use their greater resources available now to repeat the cycle - only on a larger scale.
The smartest people in the world are building companies exactly in this way.
People don’t want to root for (or buy) from faceless brands.
They will root for people they relate with and learn from.
Build your brand under your own name.
Leverage accountability to the highest degree.
Leverage
Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media).
— Naval (@naval)
8:35 AM • May 31, 2018
To do anything at a massive scale requires leverage.
The most important forms of leverage in the modern day are code and media.
You write a program once to perform a specific kind of task.
You never have to take time out to do that task again.
If you are good at coding and passionate about it, use it to solve problems at scale.
For the rest of us, the best form of leverage is media.
Media does not require technical skill, money or even an audience to get started.
And yet, it is perhaps the most powerful method of leverage available.
If I write a newsletter for an audience of 100 or 15k, it takes me the same amount of time and effort and yet the latter will have a much greater impact (and subsequently generate more income) than the former.
That is leverage at its best.
Every company now has a media division to organically drive their targeted audience towards their products.
Once you have the specific knowledge and you build a brand with you as the face of it, it’s time to use media as your leverage to build awareness and authority while selling anything you want.
Writing, video or music - the choice is yours.