A few epic quotes to meditate on from a Silicon Valley Superstar
Getting rich without selling your soul
First off, if you have any desire to build companies and get rich then you need to be following @Naval and subscribed to his podcast.
He’s a silicon valley monster gone philosophical, and spends his time now helping people craft new perspective on life and business.
I don’t know about you but i always prefer to take advice from someone who’s done it before vs. makes their living selling advice.
The particular tweetstorm he’s famous for is titled ‘How to Get Rich’. And while there are more than a few nuggets of gold in there I’m going to focus on the ones that most align with the Self Reliant Man school of thought.
Because here we don’t just want to ‘get rich’, we want wealth on our own terms in the form of cash, time, independence.
Now I’m not going to paraphrase his entire tweetstorm, read it here
Here are My Biggest Takeaways from Naval
shots on goal
equity - exponential growth/valuation abilities.
learn to build AND sell
long term games with long term people
Maximize Your Shots on Goal
If you can take shots at building massively profitable businesses without sacrificing your lifestyle, then in my opinion you are winning across the board.
This looks differently for different kinds of people. For myself and the SRM crew, it’s trying to grow online businesses (software products, consultancies, affiliate sites etc.) while traveling around the world and dating the highest caliber of woman we can find.
What does it look like for you?
You can’t guarantee you’ll be a success in business/startups like these silicon valley monsters that are doling out advice. Most are brilliant AND lucky, and there’s no promising you will be too.
But you can absolutely guarantee you live an amazing/fulfilling life while TRYING to do so. If the jackpot hits all the better, if not you won’t die with massive regrets.
Take Shots on Goal, but don’t compromise your entire life.
There’s this model of “suffer and lock yourself in a basement for 10 years so you can crush it for the next 40” Gary Vee is notorious for this.
While there is definitely value in delayed gratification. Let’s not forget that Gary forfeited his 20s for what he has now (fame, family, cash) and while in hindsight it’s a great trade for him, there’s no guarantee that suffering for 10 years will yield the same results for anyone else.
What should be taken from his anecdote is this. It’s important to work to set yourself up to get what you want.
Get Rich With Equity
This is a super fundamental concept but one that a lot of people completely miss from the start.
You need to OWN something that can appreciate in value exponentially. Plain and simple. Obviously shares in your company are the easiest way to do this. A startup can jump in value 1000x overnight based on investors, changes in the market or even landing a single large client.
THAT is how you can really get rich quickly. But you have to own equity in a rocket ship, not a beat up van. Software based companies are definitely the most ideal way to do this. Software scales infinitely, and can reach a massive marketplace (the world) quite easily.
Learn to Build AND Sell
This tweet hit me pretty hard when I first read it. I had just come off essentially a losing year in business because I was failing to get traction on a product (software based) that I was completely sure was the best on the market.
Yet when the year came to a close… we had zero sales. None.
It was then that I realized I’ve spent the last 10 years being hyper focused on building. And build I have (as a developer I’ve launched probably 10 different software companies in the last decade).
But I never spent any time really learning how to sell those ideas, and thus almost all failed or fizzled out after awhile.
We’re often led to believe that if you build a better mousetrap, people will come calling with stacks of cash in their clenched hands.
Not the case anymore (if it ever really was).
The guys that win in this world are the ones that can SELL their ideas, products, or themselves. And the guys that DOMINANT can both sell and build new things.
I’ve since re prioritized and have been working hard at learning to sell. Guess what my bottom line looks now….
Play Long Term Games with Long Term People
Beware of the shiny objects gentlemen. There’s always a new industry cropping up, a new hustle that people are getting rich online pursuing (or appear to be at least).
I’ve wasted YEARS jumping from hot idea to the next, quickly building something up and then chucking it all the crapper for a more “lucrative” industry/idea that pops up 6 months later.
If you really want to make it in an industry, you need to commit to it for the long haul. I’m talking years not months. Only then will you have enough time to figure out what the market really wants, make the right contacts and friends, and give lady luck enough time to work her magic.
Because of this concept, I now only will take on projects that I’m willing to commit a minimum of two years of dedicated work (regardless of the initial success). My hunch is Naval would say even two years is too short.
Happy Hunting,
Bryce