The Internet rewards unique people.

Find your unique combination of skills, interests, and personality traits.

I call this a Personal Monopoly.

Become the only person in the world who does what you do.

Then, tell the world by sharing your knowledge.

Thanks to @Calalouf for her beautiful drawings.

As you build your Personal Monopoly, don’t just focus on yourself.

Focus on what the world wants too.

Think like an investor.

Find a small and growing market that only a few people write about. Then, learn everything you can about it, and share the best of what you learn.

A Personal Monopoly is a unique intersection of skills, knowledge, and personality that nobody else can compete with.

Personal monopolies aren't found — they're made.

Global markets increase the upside of having a Personal Monopoly, but also make it harder to create one.

The process of building a Personal Monopoly is the process of becoming yourself.

The sweet spot is finding an idea that looks specific to others, but still diverse enough to express the many shades of who you are, where you excel, and what you want to achieve.

Mega Thread on Personal Finance 101

👇👇👇

Rule of 72 (Double Your Money)
Rule of 114 (Triple)
Rule of 144 (Quadruple)
Rule of 70 (Inflation)
4% Withdrawal Rule
100 - Minus Age Rule
10, 5, 3 Rule
50-30-20 Rule
3X Emergency Rule
40℅ EMI Rule
Life Insurance Rule

♻ Rule of 72

No. of yrs required to double your money at a given rate, U just divide 72 by interest rate
Eg, if U want to know how long it will take to double your money at 8% interest, divide 72 by 8 and get 9 yrs

At 6% rate, it will take 12 yrs
At 9% rate, it will take 8 yrs

📋Rule of 114

No. of years required to triple your money at a given rate, U just divide 114 by interest rate.

For example, if you want to know how long it will take to triple your money at 12% interest, divide 114 by 12 and get 9.5 years

At 6% interest rate, it will take 19yrs

🗒️ Rule of 144

No. of years required to, quadruple your money at a given rate, U just divide 144 by interest rate.

For eg, if U want to know how long it will take to quadruple your money at 12% interest, divide 144 by 12 and get 12 yrs

At a 6% interest rate, it will take 24yrs

🗒️ Rule of 70

Divide 70 by the current inflation rate to know how fast the value of your investment will get reduced to half its present value.

The inflation rate of 7% will reduce the value of your money to half in 10 years.

A Viper crushed beneath your foot but left alive, will rear up and bite you with a double dose of venom.

An enemy that is left around is like a half-dead viper that you nurse back to health.

Time makes the venom grow stronger.

Law 11: Learn to keep people dependent on you.

The problem is that you often do not know your friends as well as you imagine.

Friends often agree on things in order to avoid an argument.

Since honesty rarely strengthens friendship, you may never know how a friend truly feels.

[Conceal intentions with false sincerity]

Espouse a belief in honesty and forthrightness as important social values.

Do this as publicly as possible.

Emphasize your position by occasionally divulging some heartfelt thought - though only one that is meaningless or irrelevant.

To some people the notion of consciously playing power games — no matter how indirect — seems evil, asocial, a relic of the past.

They believe they can opt out of the game by behaving in ways that have nothing to do with power.

How to think critically:

(mental models and logical fallacies)

Whenever possible, confirm the "facts."

"Fact-checkers are just fake authorities anointed by the media, according to fact-checkers." — @naval

Authorities can make mistakes.

Don't fall for the "arguments from authority fallacy."

"In science there are no authorities; at most, there are experts." — Carl Sagan

Survival of the fittest argument.

Always think of multiple explanations for an argument.

Then think of tests to disprove each explanation.

Whatever remains has a better chance of being right than simply sticking with the first idea.

Two mental models that fit here:

Occam's Razor: When faced with multiple explanations pick the simpler.

Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." In other words, there can be honest mistakes.

It’s a mistake to assume that open-minded people have weak opinions.

On the contrary, they are actually strongly opinionated because they actively seek evidence contrary to their beliefs which makes them converge on beliefs that are only updated if there’s compelling evidence.

Investing in stocks, startups, crypto, real estate, and whatever else can create a lot of wealth.

That's great.

But truly achieving happiness and success in life starts with one thing:

Investing in yourself 🧵

Our lives often get more hectic the more successful we become.

And it gets more difficult to justify taking the time and energy to invest in ourselves.

Instead we just focus on short term gains in our careers, often at the expense of ourselves.

This is a mistake.

I attribute a lot of my success to continuously making sure I am my best self.

But to do that well, you need to focus.

These are the categories I invest in:
1. Education
2. Physical Health
3. Mental Health
4. Relationships

If I get these things right, I know I am doing well.

1/ Education

For me, learning is about doing. That's why I prioritize having strong mentors.

Investing in your education means paying for experiences, trying new things or skills.

This investment should be in something that will have an impact, not just in knowing more stuff.

2/ Health

Health is finding a way to stay fit as your life style changes over time.

I don't do the same workouts I did in college or even the same ones I did before I had my boys.

If you don't invest in a health routine that matches your lifestyle, it's doomed to fail.

Learn to take advantage of other people’s work to further your own cause.

Time is precious and life is short.

If you try to do it all on your own, you run yourself ragged, waste energy, and burn yourself out.

[Great courtiers] are magnets of pleasure — people want to be around them because they know how to please, yet they neither fawn nor humiliate themselves.

While he considers you weak and inferior,

and takes no precautions against you,

you are using the time to catch up and surpass him.

This soft, permeable form of invasion is often the best,

for the enemy has nothing to react against, prepare for, or resist.

For not many men, the proverb says, can love a friend who fortune
prospers without feeling envy;

and about the envious brain, cold poison clings and doubles all the pain life brings him.

His own woundings he must nurse, and feels another's gladness like a curse.

-Aeschylus

Never expose the sweat and labor behind your poise.

Some think such exposure will demonstrate their diligence and honesty, but it actually just makes them look weaker — as if anyone who practiced and worked at it could do what they had done.

Out of all the 2400 hours of your life, the joy of all your achievements combined won't add up to more than 100 hours.

Don't kill 2300 hours of your life to enjoy 100.

Learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their reputations.

Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.

The fate of those who do not make others dependent on them:

Sooner or later someone comes along who can do the job as well as they can — someone younger, fresher, less expensive, less threatening.