10-Life Lessons From The One & Only @naval

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“You want to be rich & anonymous... Not poor & famous.”

The goal is to get rich & disappear, not to get noticed!

The problem is that too many people are chasing clout instead of wealth.

Clout is not gonna put food on the table in 5 years. Change your priorities!
“I don’t have time” is just another way of saying, “it’s not a priority”

Being “Too busy” is a myth,

People make time for the things that are important to them.

If you haven’t made enough time then it’s simply because you haven’t convinced yourself it’s a priority.
“Earn with your mind, not with your time”

You’ll never get rich trading your time for money...

Reason being? Because you only have 24 hours in a day & you can’t work non-stop.

Use your mind & money to create a product that will generate you money even while you sleep 🥱
“You can escape competition through authenticity... No one can compete with you on being you”

No 2 humans are exactly the same, there’s something that makes each of us unique.

Find what makes you different & capitalize.

Your biggest competitive advantage is your originality!
One of my favourite quotes from @naval

We have an abundance of free knowledge at our fingertips on our phones/computers...

However, most people use these devices for entertainment purposes instead of education https://t.co/kuQ3W16ff6
“Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want”

Sometimes we get what we desire & we are still unhappy...

The reason?

Happiness is not found by satisfying material needs, but by eliminating them.

Everything you need is already within.
“Most of life is a search for who & what needs you the most”

The day you find your purpose is the day you are reborn

Find your unique talent & then find out exactly who that talent can help and where it can be utilized best.

Make money while helping people do what you do best!
“Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you’ll be unstoppable”

Many people can either sell very well or create top-tier content. Not many people can do both.

Set yourself apart and learn how to build & push your own creation.

That’s how empires are started!
“The greatest superpower is the ability to change your mind”

Being able to change your mind whenever you choose is one of the strongest powers we have

Feeling sad? Change your mind

Feeling anxious? Change your mind

Control your mindset & you control your life.
“You make your own luck if you stay at it long enough”

Put yourself out there & create as many opportunities

If you show up everyday then luck will be unable to ignore you. It’s only a matter of time until it chooses you.

Keep shooting your shot, one will eventually hit

More from Life

1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:

Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.

Characteristics of a personal moat below:


2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.

As Andrew Chen noted:


3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized

Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than


4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.

After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.

5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.

In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.

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The entire discussion around Facebook’s disclosures of what happened in 2016 is very frustrating. No exec stopped any investigations, but there were a lot of heated discussions about what to publish and when.


In the spring and summer of 2016, as reported by the Times, activity we traced to GRU was reported to the FBI. This was the standard model of interaction companies used for nation-state attacks against likely US targeted.

In the Spring of 2017, after a deep dive into the Fake News phenomena, the security team wanted to publish an update that covered what we had learned. At this point, we didn’t have any advertising content or the big IRA cluster, but we did know about the GRU model.

This report when through dozens of edits as different equities were represented. I did not have any meetings with Sheryl on the paper, but I can’t speak to whether she was in the loop with my higher-ups.

In the end, the difficult question of attribution was settled by us pointing to the DNI report instead of saying Russia or GRU directly. In my pre-briefs with members of Congress, I made it clear that we believed this action was GRU.