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| Thinkin' about you, the people of the internet. |
On the flight home, between watching John Wick use horses to deface his enemies, I was reflecting on the experience. Part of my nature is always wanting to share the things I love with others. Every place we go and cool experience we have I always find myself thinking, "Man xyz would love this," Or "We need to bring so and so here." This time I was really thinking about what advice I had for the kids, so they could have experiences like that as much as possible. Mainly around college age or just recently graduated. Something had just been pulling at me to craft some thoughts for the youngin's. I say the young folks just because it's easier for them while they're starting from scratch to implement these things in their lives, but really, this advice is for everyone.
Most of this advice comes from Naval Ravikant and his 3.5 hour podcast episode called "How to Get Rich: Every Episode." Naval is a tech startup guru and early investor in Twitter, Uber, and many more, who's recently started talking a lot more about philosophy. He put out a "Tweet Storm," on Twitter called "How to Get Rich Without Getting Lucky," and it blew up in popularity, so he recorded a podcast surrounding the ideas in those tweets. I recommend listening to it yourself, but I highlight a few of the things he mentions in there as I think they're pure gold for everyone, but especially if you're just "coming into the real world."
1. Be aware of what you're boxing yourself into.
This one is not from Naval. This is one of my core philosophies. Trying to recognize how different decisions you make now will play out and what they'll turn into down the road. Specifically, asking yourself, "What is ___ boxing me into?"
Here's an example of how my mind thinks and how far I go into different decisions. I've really started to enjoy mountain biking up in Cuyuna the past few summers. So, naturally, all of our friends who are bikers ask me if I'm buying a mountain bike. I reply, "No." Because for me, and my current life and desires, purchasing a bike would lead to things I don't want. If I bought a mountain bike, the one I get to rent for $50/day, I'd spend about $3,500 on it. But then I'd need to store it, so I'd have to start renting a garage at my apartment for $75/month. I would then fill that garage space with other stuff, because humans have an incredible ability to fill spaces in their homes. I would also have to spend time & money cleaning it, repairing it, and so on. I would also need some sort of bike rack to carry my bike on our vehicles. You understand the point, it snowballs into a whole heap of extra time and money. So instead, I rent a bike the few times I go up there, and take that extra money I'm saving and go on kick-ass vacations. I end up getting more enjoyment, for me, out of the same amount of money spent.
Remember, there is no right, there is only right for you. If you want a mountain bike and all that comes with it, that's awesome. I just bought new skis, because when it comes to skiing, for me, that's something I'm not messing around with.
You have to think about what your true desires are, and if decisions you're making for short term gains are going to bring you closer, or farther away, from your true desires. I simply strive to be a free range human. To me, that means not having to be in a specific place, at a specific time, doing things I don't want to do on a consistent basis. Like I used to have to be 5 days a week when I was a teacher, and I had to eat and use the restroom during specific times of the day. It's just not for me. So, if your goal is to be free, pay attention to what you're adding into your life and how it effects that goal.
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| This just seemed like a "Free Range Human" picture to me. |
I think two big items that box people in to make sure you're paying attention to is your job and your shelter. Everyone needs somewhere to live, and your choice here can go a long way in determining how free you're able to be. It's very common to, "Once you can afford it," get a house. Cool, nothing wrong with that. Of course with it comes all the bills and things associated with a house. Great, not too big of a deal, you can afford it. But then, you really want to just start your own underwater basket weaving company because it's your true passion, and you realize you can't because you need to keep up with the house payments. So you stay in the job you don't love, get a promotion where you don't really love the new work you'll be doing, because you have to. And that's really the key, trying to avoid doing things because you have to, and instead being able to make decisions simply because you really want to.
Of course then there's the conversation of how you're making the money. Is it hourly? Salary? Commissions? Dividends? Royalties? How you're making it can also play a big role into getting boxed in vs being free, but that's for a whole other conversation. One step at a time, folks.
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| More sunsets on the beach, and less of stuff you don't like. |
2. Live below your means for freedom.
In the podcast, Naval drops the line, "People who are living far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyle's just can't fathom."
I think what he's referencing is very underrated, misunderstood, and not talked about enough. It's easy to see the words "Living far below their means," and assume that means you can only eat rice and beans and live on your friends couch. This is far from true. One of the best ways to accomplish this while living a life you love, full of the things you love, is to become aware of what you're spending in all areas of your life. Ramit Sethi, on a podcast with Tim Ferris, summed up the perfect advice for this saying, "Spend extravagantly on what you love, and cut costs mercilessly on the things you don't."
I thought that was just fantastic. Around here that looks like:
Spend lavishly on: Travel & Food (Food meaning groceries for Alissa's cheffing, and local restaurants when traveling)
Cut back mercilessly on: Shopping for clothes, going out to eat here, going out on the weekends, cars, TV + subscriptions, house, buying dumb shit.
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| Part of that whole spending money on travel and food deal. |
If you do this, live below your means, aka spend far less than you make, it relieves an immense amount of stress around money. You're able to live free. And you don't need to have a ton of money to do this and feel this way, you just have to change your bills. And then as your income increases, try to keep your bills the same, providing more and more freedom. Life will undoubtedly happen, you'll have kids, medical issues will come up, but that's why I think it's so important for the youngin's to start this now. Again, it doesn't mean don't have awesome experiences, I'm all about living life for now as we don't know what the future holds, but then just cut back on other stuff.
As Gary V says, "Stop buying dumb shit to impress people you don't even like."
3. Become the type of person that luck finds.
In the podcast, Naval goes into the 4 kinds of luck.
-Blind luck
-Luck from hustling
-Luck from preparation
-Luck from your unique character
The one I'll focus on is the 4th kind of luck, luck from your unique character. This is where you build a unique brand for yourself, where people bring opportunities to you because of who you are and your unique skills.
His example, he admits a bit funny and extreme, is say you're the best deep sea diver in the world. Someone finds treasure but they can't get to it. They have to come to you to get it, because you're the only one who can help them. So, by doing so, you get to split the treasure with them.
You created your luck, luck found you, because you have a unique skill set that people know they need to accomplish their task.
What can you create, or who can you become, that is unique? What can you be the best in the world at? Why would people choose to come to you to help them achieve their goals/tasks? What unique set of skills, mindset, and brand, do you bring to the table? You don't need to know right away, but be thinking about this and try to build towards it in everything you do.
He didn't talk about this in the podcast, but I think part of having "Luck from your unique character," is also being someone people want to work with. There's a lot of highly talented people out there, so when the choice is being made in someone's mind of who they want to bring an opportunity to, they're naturally going to pick the person who not only has the talents and skills, but who they also want to work with. That plays a bigger part in people's minds than you may first think.
Simply: Be awesome. And stuff will flow your way.
4. Find 3 hobbies: One that makes you money, one that makes you fit, and one that makes you smarter.
This one is pretty self explanatory, but important to bring up nonetheless. Your hobby that makes you money can be your job, if you love your job. If you don't but need your job (until you stop spending money on dumb shit so you can have more freedom), find a hobby that makes you money. Maybe you love cooking, teach people or make items for $$. Maybe you're great at tennis and love it, teach private lessons for $$.
For me, my hobby that makes me money is creating and building companies. I really enjoy the process, and I know I'll always do it. I like the ideation, collaboration, and creativity that comes with it.
My hobbies that makes me fit are yoga and pickleball. If I lived out west I'd add skiing to the list, because nothing shreds the legs like shredding down a mountain.
And my hobby that makes me smarter is reading (books, online articles) and listening to podcasts.
Find your hobbies. Everyone can find things they love that will help them in each of those areas.
5. A calm mind, a fit body, and a house full of love.
Naval said he put out one tweet that wasn't the most insightful, wasn't the most helpful, wasn't the one people talked about the most, but was his favorite. And it was, "A calm mind, a fit body, and a house full of love. These things cannot be bought - they must be earned."
Jeff Bezos still has to work out, he still has to work on his relationships, and still has to control his internal mental state. These are things you still have to work on yourself. No amount of money can fix them.
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| Just workin' on the calm mind, fit body, and house full of love, all at once. |
We covered a lot there, folks, and yet I feel like it hardly scratches the surface.There's so much more in Naval's podcast that I know I'm not done writing about things he covered, this is just all we had time for today. These are all loaded topics, but I think it's a pretty good summary of the basics. If you want deeper conversation on any of these, or something surrounding this, feel free to message me. Always open for conversations around these topics.
In the end, don't buy dumb shit, keep yourself as free as possible, become someone totally unique and be so awesome that luck finds you, and just be a good, nice human being.
Be Awesome
-Tom Spaniol
"The ultimate purpose of money is so you do not have to be in a specific place, at a specific time, doing anything you don't want to do."
-Naval Ravikant
