Episode #136 with Naval Ravikant on the Tim Ferriss show is one of my most listened podcast episodes of all time. Naval is the CEO and a co-founder of AngelList. He has invested in over 100 companies, including more than a few “unicorn” mega-successes. Maybe most importantly, he has developed a diverse set of skills and knowledge that are invaluable - This makes his advice wise and practical.

Here are my top 3 lessons from the episode:

The Future of Work

Try to make a creative work, so you’ll stay interesting, stay ahead of the game. Anything that’s not a creative society can replicate and then not pay you full value over time, so it’s always better to solve new problems and do new things, and get comfortable working in a boom-bust fashion. 

Naval’s views on the future of work and his advice on how can someone prepare for the gig economy is valuable for everyone - especially the Ship30 mates, many of whom have built or are building their brands.

HaaS - Happiness as a Skill

The most important trick to be happy is to realize that happiness is a skill that you develop and a choice that you make. You choose to be happy, and then you work at it. 

Naval suggests that happiness is just like a skill, gets better with practice. You decide that it’s important to you. You prioritize it above everything else. And continuously and consciously work on your happiness.

The Power of Compounding

All the greatness in life comes from compound interest, whether it’s in investments or it’s in relationships.

He suggests we treat our time as a search function, where we are searching through all our interests to identify the one that we love - from our jobs, to our spouses. And once you find what you love, you go all-in, and that’s when you reap the benefits of compounding in your life.

If you haven’t already, I strongly suggest that you take the time to list to the episode. Would love to hear from you if there are any similar podcast recommendation for me. Thanks for reading.