10 quotes from The Almanac Of Naval Ravikant
Who is Naval Ravikant?
Naval Ravikant is an Indian-American entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder, chairman, and former CEO of AngelList. He has invested early-stage in over 200 companies, including Uber, FourSquare, Twitter, Wish.com, Poshmark, Postmates, Thumbtack, Notion, SnapLogic, Opendoor, Clubhouse, Stack Overflow, OpenDNS, Yammer, and Clearview AI, with over 70 total exits and more than 10 Unicorn companies.
On Life
“Confucius had a great saying that every man has two lives, and the second starts when he realizes he has just one.”
Explanation
Human life is fundamentally limited, mortal, and will end one day. Daily, we live our lives as though we are immortal. We fall for greed, lust, success, failure, etc. These emotions excite, sadden and sometimes traumatize us. In this quote, Naval talks about enlightenment and awakening. The moment you realize that your life is a gift given by God, you start to live a new life. It is filled with joy, peace, acceptance, forgiveness, empathy, and happiness in the state of being.
On Meaning
“The answer to the meaning of life is “because.” You get to make up the answer and create your own meaning.”
Explanation
It is yet another profound quote. The meaning of life is what we attribute to it. The definition of life is in the purpose itself, and that there is no singular meaning to it. For a beggar, the importance of life is survival. For a king, it is power. For an artist, it is their art. For an engineer, it is their creation, etc. Life is beautiful, varied, and can have many different meanings associated with it.
On Solitude
“An attainable superpower.”
Explanation
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone,” wrote the French philosopher Blaise Pascal. This is undoubtedly true. Solitude is a great blessing and an achievable state of mind. When a person is quiet, they can think deeply about the problems of their life. They can work out the issues in the life they face. Furthermore, many great ideas also flow from the state of solitude when one sits to think deeply about issues one cares about. It is undoubtedly achievable through meditation.
On Meditation
“Slow your busy mind, give up the idea of problems, and seek peace from your mind by watching your mind all day long.”
Explanation
Meditation is a superpower that entails being able to watch your thoughts without any judgment. Imagine you are sitting in a garden and watching the clouds pass through the blue sky with the wind or the waves in the ocean. The shadows or the waves in this example are your thoughts that you can observe. Once you can learn to keep your studies, you will find peace and calm by emptying your thoughts.
On Peace & Happiness
Peace is happiness at Rest and Happiness is Peace in Motion.
Explanation
A calm mind remains happy when in solitude. To be peaceful, one needs to be satisfied when not doing anything. A happy state of being itself should lead you naturally to peace. Whereas an unsatisfied mind, frustrated when alone, loses its stability and remains restless.
Being happy in motion (in work) leads to peace. A person who can remain satisfied when moving through life and tackling all the many challenges that come with it will find peace.
On Learning
“Humans are broad and multivariate. Try your hand at everything because you only have one life.”
Explanation
We, as humans, are the most sophisticated species on this planet earth. We have evolved from the simplest life forms over hundreds of thousands of years. Evolution has gifted many capabilities. We should, therefore, use these abilities to the best of our extent. Furthermore, success in life requires a lot of luck. Those who succeed fail more often than those who end up not growing. Life is a short-term game, and finding the one thing that you are the best in the world will require several attempts before you can reach the state of success.
On Understanding
“Read for yourself to understand concepts.”
Explanation
Understanding develops only when you read, think and assimilate knowledge first-hand. Reading is an essential part of it. The more extensive is your reading, the broader you learn. However, learning by imitation or following others doesn’t become fruitful for you. The primary reason being the feedback your brain gets as it goes through a book. An experience first-hand is much higher dimensional than the feedback you get when you imitate or blindly follow others. Reading is an essential and critical skill for it.
On Starting Over
“Embrace the rare ability to start over.”
Explanation
It is said that the child is the father of a man. This is true in life. It is necessary to cultivate the habit of starting over from scratch and building a life from failure. Every time we fail at an endeavor, having the patience and the courage to start over is a gift in itself. In this quote, Naval refers to this ability as rare in humans and necessary to embrace.
On Aha Moments
“Combine things you’re not supposed to combine to find your own aha moments and fulfil your curiosity.”
Explanation
Value generation sometimes requires us to combine the best of multiple worlds. Leonardo Da Vinci was a prime example of a creator who was great at both analytical and creative skills and was able to build masterpieces using both parts of his brain.
On Creativity
“Art is just creativity: anything done for its own sake. Embrace creativity because it’s the future’s last frontier.”
Explanation
In this quote, Naval expresses his views on what constitutes art. Art is creativity done for the sake of the expression of the human self. It doesn’t have an ulterior motive other than personal satisfaction. It is not done to get social proof, monetary benefits, gain fame, etc. Creativity is the last frontier and is a sign of the highest form of an intelligent being. We should strive to embrace and achieve it.
I am also writing a book that will include all my works. If you are interested in reading it, please do share your email id here.
My complete profile: https://linktr.ee/ravitandon
Cheers,
Ravi.
