Naval Ravikant on Success Quotes

"Don’t partner with cynics and pessimists. Their beliefs are self-fulfilling."

"Code and media are permissionless leverage. They're the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep."

"Total honesty at all times. If you can’t be honest with yourself, you can’t be honest with anyone else."

"Set and enforce an aspirational personal hourly rate. If fixing a problem will save less than your hourly rate, ignore it."

"The most successful people are those who have figured out how to be themselves."

"If you can’t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts."

"Success is the ability to do what you want, when you want, with whom you want."

"Pick an industry where you can play long term games with long term people."

"Set up systems, not goals. Use your judgment to figure out what kind of environments you can thrive in, and then create an environment around you so you’re statistically likely to succeed."

"Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life. Choose the difficult path now."

"If you want to make the maximum amount of money, you have to take the maximum amount of risk early on."

"Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others."

"When you’re finally wealthy, you’ll realize that it wasn’t what you were seeking in the first place."

"There is no actual skill called ‘business.’ Avoid business schools. Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers."

"Motivation is for the short term. Systems are for the long term."

"The only real test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life."

"The most successful people are those who have become the most themselves."

"There are no fast schemes. That’s just someone else getting rich off of you."

"Play long-term games with long-term people. All returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest."

"Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow. When today is complete, in and of itself, you’re retired."

"Pick partners with high intelligence, energy, and, above all, integrity."

"Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage."

"Work as hard as you can. Even though who you work with and what you work on are more important than how hard you work."

"The internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers. Most people haven't figured this out yet."

"Forty hour work weeks are a relic of the Industrial Age. Knowledge workers function like athletes - train and sprint, then rest and reassess."

"The more authentic you are, the less competition you have. You are the only person who can be you."

"Escape competition through authenticity."

"Judgment requires experience, but can be built faster by learning foundational skills."

"You should be too busy to ‘do coffee,’ while still keeping an uncluttered calendar."

"If you want to be successful, surround yourself with people who are more successful than you. If you want to be happy, surround yourself with people who are less successful than you."

"Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now."

"The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner."

"Embrace accountability, and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage."