How to Be Great
(Naval Ravikant)
The less you want something, the less you’re thinking about it, the less you’re obsessing over it, the more you’re going to do it in a natural way. The more you’re going to do it for yourself. You’re going to do it in a way you’re good at, and you’re going to stick with it. The people around you will see the quality of your work is higher.
What feels like play to you, but looks like work to others?
I’m always “working.” It looks like work to others, but it feels like play to me. And that’s how I know no one can compete with me on it. Because I’m just playing, for sixteen hours a day. If others want to compete with me, they’re going to work, and they’re going to lose because they’re not going to do it for sixteen hours a day, seven days a week.
All greatness comes from suffering.
Happiness is being satisfied with what you have.
Success comes from dissatisfaction.
Choose.
Let’s go back to desire…this is old, old Buddhist wisdom…Desire to me is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want, and I keep that in front of mind…Pick your one overwhelming desire. It’s okay to suffer over that one.
The universe is rigged in such a way that if you just want one thing and you focus on that, you will get it. But everything else, you got to let go.
A busy calendar and a busy mind will destroy your ability to do great things in this world. If you want to do great things—whether you’re a musician, entrepreneur, or investor—you need free time and a free mind.
You can get almost anything you want out of life, as long as it’s one thing and you want it far more than anything else.
Replace all desires with a single desire.
If you want to be great, walk the rope without a boss and without a net.
The great ones don’t do it for money or fame or power.
Or to build an institution, or to help others, or to save the world.
Like a child tinkering, they create it for its own sake.
Free of the burden of ambition.
Deaf to the demands of the world.
It’s becoming easier and easier to be social, but exceptional people are built in solitude.
To make an original contribution, you have to be irrationally obsessed with something.
A busy calendar and a busy mind will destroy your ability to create anything great.
Go for a walk. Reconsider what you’re doing. If it’s not fun, you’re unlikely to be great at it anyway.
You make your own luck if you stay at it long enough.
Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others.
If you aren’t curious about it, you’ll never be good at it.
Be patient, it takes 10 years to build a career in anything.
Be impatient with actions but patient with results.
The purpose of wealth is freedom; it’s nothing more than that. The ultimate purpose of money is so you don’t have to be in a specific place, at a specific time, doing anything you don’t want to do. It’s about being your own sovereign individual.
When you’re finally wealthy, you’ll realize it wasn’t what you were seeking in the first place.