How to Get Rich(without getting lucky)- Naval Ravikant 的财富大智慧

我第一次知道 Naval Ravikant 这个名字是在 The Tim Ferriss Show 的第 136 期播客节目中，也是从那时候起路人转粉，开始在网络上关注这个人。

Naval 是硅谷著名的创业者，风险投资人。他是 Twitter，Uber 等明星创业公司的早期投资人，也是风投平台 AngelList 的创始人（我们很多人喜闻乐见的网站 Product Hunt 就是 AngelList 的子公司）。

硅谷有名的投资人多如牛毛，但是我粉 Naval 最主要原因还是在于他对于创业，财富等话题颇有些佛系色彩的哲思，这也是他不同于其他一众硅谷投资人的特色。

今天我想跟大家分享一下 Naval 在今年早些时候发布的一条长推特，它的标题很俗“ How to Get Rich ”，但是内容却一点都不简单。接下来我会用节选，翻译和点评的方式带大家一起感受下 Naval 关于“财富自由”的大智慧：

Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth.

译：我们要追求财富，而不仅仅是追求金钱和社会地位。财富是指你在睡觉时候也能帮你赚钱的资产，而金钱仅仅是我们交换财富和时间的载体。

点评：很多人误以为财富等同于金钱，终其一生目标只有一个，就是让自己银行账户上的账面数字不断变大，但最后却活得像个奴隶，他们不能理解的是，真正富有的人是让金钱为他们工作，而不是 work for money。

You ’ re not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity — a piece of a business — to gain your financial freedom.
译：靠时间换取金钱无法让你变得富有。想要获得财富自由，你的选择只有一个：成为一名创业者。

点评：朝九晚五的工作不单单是时间和地域的枷锁，它还有一个致命的硬伤，不具有 scalability，升职加薪迟早有一天会顶到天花板，而创业则没有。

The Internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers. Most people haven ’ t figured this out yet
译：互联网的诞生极大地丰富了职业选择。绝大多数人还没有意识到这一点。

点评：举个例子，我们周围的很多人每天都在网上消费各种内容，亦或是微信微博，亦或是抖音快手，但是很少有人认为内容创造本身就是一种职业，或者他们认为这是典型的“不务正业”。

Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.
译：不断迭代，我们人生中几乎所有的回报，无论是财富，人际关系，还是知识，都来自于一个叫做“复利”的东西。

点评：狭义上复利就是我们俗称的“利滚利”，广义复利效应不单单体现在金钱增值上面，也体现在我们生活的方方面面。复利效应更直白地说就是事物按照指数曲线增长。很多人对于增长的惯性思维都是线性的，例如做一个微信公众号，第一个月涨了 100 个粉，很多人会习惯性地认为一年可以积攒 1200 个粉，而是现实情况是只要创作者能够不断地在这个微信公众号实现高质量的内容输出，那它的增长肯定就不是一条直线，而是一条指数曲线。所以说“复利”是世界第八大奇迹，一点都不为过。能够理解指数效应，并能用 exponential view 来看待世间万物的发展轨迹，你就已经领先绝大多数人了。

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.
An army of robots is freely available — it ’ s just packed in data centers for heat and space efficiency. Use it.
If you can ’ t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts.
译：代码和新媒体是无需许可的杠杆，它们也是新贵们创造财富的主要手段。你可以通过创造软件和内容来实现被动收入。
人工智能技术让你可以不花一分钱就能拥有一支永远不会偷懒的机器人“团队“，它们分布在全球各地的数据中心里，随时待命。如果你不会写代码，你至少可以写书，写博客，录视频和播客节目。

点评：阿基米德说：“给我一个支点和一根足够长的杠杆，我就可以撬动地球”，在互联网时代，最好用的杠杆就是代码和内容。上个世纪，世界上最大最有影响力的公司还都是一些汽车公司和石油公司，到这个世纪，科技和信息产业变成了引领时代潮流的中坚力量。而移动互联网和人工智能技术的发展，让一个人单枪匹马，四两拨千斤式的创业模式成为可能，我们看到越来越多的“ one-peron million-dollar business ”不断地涌现出来，而且它们中的绝大部分（ if not all ）都是基于软件服务业或者自媒体。而且，我们也看到，绝大多数的数字游民也是通过写代码或者创作内容来获得 location independence 的。学习编程的门槛正在变得越来越低，就算你对写代码没有一点兴趣，你也可以选择创作内容，而且绝大多数情况下，你只需要一部智能手机就可以开始进行创作了。

There are no get rich quick schemes. That ’ s just someone else getting rich off you.
译:世上没有快速致富的捷径，如果有，那一定是别人用来割你韭菜的幌子。

点评：很多人没有意识到的是，我们现实生活中看到的很多快速致富的成功案例都是所谓的“幸存者偏差”，也就是说，这样的成功轨迹是不具有普适性的，真正具有普适性的成功轨迹是在自己所擅长并热爱的领域不断耕耘，期待指数增长曲线拐点的来临。一味地模仿跟风追热点只会让自己沦为韭菜。

最后，奉上 Naval 的推特完整全文，希望这篇分享能对你有所启示。

How to Get Rich (without getting lucky):

Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy.

Understand that ethical wealth creation is possible. If you secretly despise wealth, it will elude you.

Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games.

You ’ re not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity — a piece of a business — to gain your financial freedom.

You will get rich by giving society what it wants but does not yet know how to get. At scale.

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

The Internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers. Most people haven ’ t figured this out yet.

Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.

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

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

Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.

Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage.

Specific knowledge is knowledge that you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else, and replace you.

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

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

When specific knowledge is taught, it ’ s through apprenticeships, not schools.

Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative. It cannot be outsourced or automated.

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

The most accountable people have singular, public, and risky brands: Oprah, Trump, Kanye, Elon.

“ Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I will move the earth.” — Archimedes

Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media).

Capital means money. To raise money, apply your specific knowledge, with accountability, and show resulting good judgment.

Labor means people working for you. It ’ s the oldest and most fought-over form of leverage. Labor leverage will impress your parents, but don ’ t waste your life chasing it.

Capital and labor are permissioned leverage. Everyone is chasing capital, but someone has to give it to you. Everyone is trying to lead, but someone has to follow you.

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.

An army of robots is freely available — it ’ s just packed in data centers for heat and space efficiency. Use it.

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

Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgement.

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

There is no skill called “ business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes.

Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers.

Reading is faster than listening. Doing is faster than watching.

You should be too busy to “ do coffee,” while still keeping an uncluttered calendar.

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

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.

Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.

There are no get rich quick schemes. That ’ s just someone else getting rich off you.

Apply specific knowledge, with leverage, and eventually you will get what you deserve.

When you ’ re finally wealthy, you ’ ll realize that it wasn ’ t what you were seeking in the first place. But that ’ s for another day.

本文翻译与点评部分系 Jarod Zhang 原创，如需转载请联系作者授权。坚持原创不易，你的打赏和转发是我继续创作的最大动力。

数字游民部落致力于推广目前在全世界日益流行的数字游民（ Digital Nomad ）生活方式，和 Lifestyle Design 的方法和理念。