Health, love, and your mission, in that order. Nothing else matters.

Naval Ravikant

健康、爱情和使命,按这个顺序。其他一切都无关紧要。


Naval Ravikant是著名的天使投资平台AngelList的CEO和创始人,他曾投资过超过200家公司,包括Twitter、Uber、Poshmark、Postmates等知名企业。截至2023年3月,Naval Ravikant的净资产估计约为6000万美元。

Naval经常在Podcast和Twitter上分享自己的思考。在2018年,他发表了"How to get rich without getting lucky"系列Tweets,该系列被翻译成多种语言在全世界范围内传播。Eric Jorgenson将他的访谈内容整理成了一本书:The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness(纳瓦尔宝典)。这本书主要讲述了Naval Ravikant积累财富和创造长期幸福的原则。

今天,我想与大家分享这本给我带来很多启发的书!


(1) 健康

在书中,他分享了人生中三件核心重要的事情,按照优先级从高到低排列,它们是:健康、爱和使命。其中,最重要的是健康,包括身体、心理和精神的健康。对他来说,身体健康是最为关键的。其次是心理健康,然后才是精神健康。只有当我们照顾好自己的身体健康时,才能有更多的精力和活力去与他人相处、追寻自己的使命。其次,他关注家人的健康,随后是家人的快乐和幸福。在这些之后,他才会去做其他需要做的事情。

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Health, love, and your mission, in that order. Nothing else matters.

Happiness=Health+Wealth+Good Relationships 幸福=健康+财富+良好的人际关系

Health=Exercise+Diet+Sleep 健康=运动+饮食+睡眠

Exercise=High Intensity Resistance Training+Sports+Rest 运动=高强度抵抗训练+运动+休息

Diet = Natural Foods+Intermittent Fasting+Plants 饮食=天然食物+间歇性禁食+植物

Sleep=No alarms+8-9 hours+Circadian rhythms 睡眠=无闹钟+8-9小时+昼夜节律

Naval Ravikant的生活中,身体健康总是优先于他的幸福、家庭和工作。因此,他永远不会说没有时间锻炼。每天早晨起床后,他的第一件事就是锻炼身体,无论需要多长时间。只有完成锻炼后,他才开始新的一天。

My number one priority in life, above my happiness, above my family, above my work, is my own health. It starts with my physical health. Because my physical health became my number one priority, then I could never say I don't have time. In the morning, I work out, and however long it takes is how long it takes. I do not start my day until I've worked out. I don't care if the world is imploding and melting down, it can wait another thirty minutes until I'm done working out. Second, it's my mental health. Third, it's my spiritual health. Then, it's my family's health. Then, it's my family's well-being. After that, I can go out and do whatever I need to do with the rest of the world.

30岁以前,我是把工作放在第一位的人。直到我30岁左右,我才逐渐认识到身体 健康 的重要性。尤其是随着自动化、AI等技术的普及,我突然意识到,对于现在的我来说,最有价值的 投资 就是健康。因为随着技术的发展,人们的工作效率将越来越高。现在我能够达到的最高工作效率,也很可能无法与未来的平均工作效率相提并论。因此,只要我能保持足够长时间的健康和活力,工作效率就会随着科技的发展而不断提高,而现在的工作成果在未来可能会变得微不足道。

(2) 瑜伽和冥想

在之前的 文章 中,我介绍过给我带来很多帮助的冥想:

一种将心思集中在一个特定的对象、思想或活动上来训练注意力和意识的练习。

在冥想中,人们处于以副交感神经的活化为主的放松状态,从而达到头脑清晰、情绪平静稳定的状态。此外,冥想还有助于改善大脑、心血管和睡眠等方面的功能,并有可能激发创造力。

Naval在书中建议以六十天为周期,每天早晨先冥想一小时。他还建议在每次躺在床上时都可以尝试冥想,因为你可能会进入深度冥想或直接入睡,而无论哪种结果都对你有好处。

Meditation is turning off society and listening to yourself. It only "works" when done for its own sake. Hiking is walking meditation. Journalling is writing meditation. Praying is gratitude meditation. Showering is accidental meditation. Sitting quietly is direct meditation.

Meditation is intermittent fasting for the mind. Too much sugar leads to a heavy body, and too many distractions lead to a heavy mind. Time spent undistracted and alone, in self-examination, journalling, and meditation, resolves the unresolved and takes us from mentally fat to fit.

冥想是头脑的间歇性禁食。太多的糖会导致身体沉重,太多的干扰会导致头脑沉重。花时间不受干扰地独处,进行自我检查、写日记和冥想,解决未解决的问题,让我们从精神上的肥胖变得健康。冥想可以帮助我们屏蔽社会的噪声,倾听自己的声音。

他认为,徒步旅行是行走的冥想,写日记是书写的冥想,冲澡是意外的冥想,静坐是直接的冥想。我觉得,他推荐的瑜伽也是一种运动的冥想。

One month of consistent yoga and I feel 10 years younger. To stay flexible is to stay young.

坚持一个月的瑜伽,我感觉自己年轻了10岁。保持灵活就是保持年轻。

Perhaps one reason why yoga and meditation are hard to sustain is they have no extrinsic value. Purely single-player games. But all the real scorecards are internal.

也许瑜伽和冥想难以持续的一个原因是它们没有外在价值, 是纯粹的单人游戏。但所有真正的记分卡都是内在的。


(3)钱能解决的问题

Money buys you freedom in the material world. It's not going to make you happy, it's not going to solve your health problems, it's not going to make your family great, it's not going to make you fit, it's not going to make you calm. But it will solve a lot of external problems. It's a reasonable step to go ahead and make money.

What making money will do is solve your money problems. It will remove a set of things that could get in the way of being happy, but it is not going to make you happy.

在物质世界中,金钱可以带给你自由。它能够消除一些可能会妨碍你快乐的事物,但它不能直接带来快乐,也不能解决你的健康问题,让你的家庭变得伟大,或者让你获得内心的平静。不过,它能够解决许多外部问题,如金钱上的困境。

赚钱能够解决你的金钱问题。

I know many very wealthy people who are unhappy. Most of the time, the person you have to become to make money is a high-anxiety, high-stress, hard-working, competitive person. When you have done that for twenty, thirty, fifty years, and you suddenly make money, you can't turn it off. You've trained yourself to be a high-anxiety person. Then, you have to learn how to be happy.

我认识许多非常富有但却不感到幸福的人。往往,为了追逐金钱,人们变得焦虑、承受压力、不断地竞争。经过二三十年的这样的生活方式,即使赚到了大量的钱,也难以让自己放下竞争的心态,放松心情。因此,我们必须学会如何获得幸福。

Let's get you rich first. I'm very practical about it because, you know, Buddha was a prince. He started off really rich, then he got to go off in the woods.

让我们先让你变得富有。我对此非常实际,因为你知道,佛陀是一位王子。他一开始非常富有,然后他才去了树林里。

(4)如何致富

Making money is not a thing you do - it's a skill you learn.

赚钱不是一件你做的事情,而是一项你学习的技能。

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.

你无法靠出卖时间致富,你必须拥有股权——企业的一部分,来获得财务自由。

要想在社会上赚到钱,就要提供其有需求但无从获得的东西。让自己成为第一个提供相关产品或服务的人,并将其规模化。

规模化也很重要,因为只提供一个产品或一项服务是远远不够的,必须提供成千上万,甚至几十万、几百万、甚至数十亿的产品或服务,以满足广泛的需求,才有可能获得财富。

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

退休是不再为了想象中的明天而牺牲今天。能活在当下,内心充盈地度过每一天,就达到了退休的状态。

Naval认为我们不用等到老了 (传统的退休大约在60岁左右)才过上退休的自由生活。我们可以在自己想要的年龄,终止为了挣“退休金”而工作的生活。

因此,他建议要找到自己的专长(Specific Knowledge),那些即便不挣钱你也愿意做的事情,让你充满热情,忘记时间流逝的事情。累积专长的过程,对你而言就像玩耍,对他人来说却很吃力。然后不断提升,再找到社会对这件你热爱的事情的需求,通过责任感(Accountability)和杠杆效应(Leverage)获得财富。

他在How to Get Rich (Without Getting Lucky)的最后总结道:

Summary: Productize Yourself

把自己商品化。

这里边有两个关键词:一个叫自己,另一个叫商品化。首先是要找到自己,真正的独特的自己。在追寻财富的时候需要不断地问自己:这是我真的想创造的东西和想过的生活吗?而商品化的重点是找到杠杆效应(leverage),能够把自己作为产品的影响放大。

Naval总结了三种杠杆:劳动力 (labor)、资本(money)和复制边际成本为零的产品(书、媒体、电影、代码等)(products with no marginal cost of replication)。最后一种是Naval最为推崇的杠杆,因为代码和媒体是不需要他人许可就能使用的杠杆。

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

学会销售,学会创造。如果能做到这两点,你将势不可挡。

(5) 阅读

阅读是内向人的避难所。Naval说自己从小就喜欢阅读的原因可能是因为他天生是一个内向的人,不太喜欢社交(antisocial introvert)。在"Learn to Love to Read"这一章节中,Naval分享了许多有关阅读的观点。

关于读什么书,他这么建议:

Read what you love until you love to read.

There's no mission here to accomplish. Just read because you enjoy it.

It doesn't matter what you read. Eventually, you will read enough things (and your interests will lead you there) that it will dramatically improve your life. Just like the best workout for you is one you're excited enough to do every day, I would say for books, blogs, tweets, or whatever-anything with ideas and information and learning - the best ones to read are the ones you're excited about reading all the time.

阅读你喜欢的内容,直到你喜欢阅读。只是因为喜欢而阅读,没有其它额外的任务要完成。

你阅读什么并不重要。最终,你会阅读足够多的东西(你的兴趣会引导你),它会极大地改善你的生活。就像对你来说最好的锻炼是你每天都兴奋地去做的锻炼一样,我想说对于书籍、博客、推文或任何带有想法、信息和学习的东西——最好的阅读对象是那些你一直都很兴奋去阅读的。

他认为阅读一本书不是一场比赛——书越好,应该吸收得越慢。

Reading a book isn't a race-the better the book, the more slowly it should be absorbed.

I don't want to read everything. I just want to read the 100 great books over and over again.

书中引用了Charlie Munger的一句话:

As long as I have a book in my hand, I don't feel like I'm wasting time.

只要手里有书,就不觉得浪费时间。

我也是如此,无论去哪里,我都随时带一本书。无论在等菜,在排队,还是在无聊的聚餐中,甚至是在尴尬不知该说什么的时候,我都可以逃离现实,进入书中的世界。


这本书里面还有很多值得反复阅读和学习的内容,我十分推荐大家去阅读原书。这本书的英文电子版是免费的,可以在 这里 下载。 中文版 可以在微信读书里找到。希望Naval的智慧可以帮助大家获得幸福自由的生活!


相关信息:

  1. Naval Ravikant Net Worth 2023: Age, Height, Weight, Wife, Kids, Bio-Wiki https://www.wealthypersons.com/naval-ravikant-net-worth-2020-2021/
  2. 20230327 春天来了,身体健康,三个原则 https://river.zhubai.love/posts/2251937221504491520
  3. 20230313 Everyone is in Sales https://river.zhubai.love/posts/2246994065734680576
  4. 20230306 优化个人商业模式 https://river.zhubai.love/posts/2244272932891594752
  5. 20221017 退休和工具 https://river.zhubai.love/posts/2193583282031968256
  6. 20220822 快乐,觉知,生活 https://river.zhubai.love/posts/2173288810266279936
  7. 你坚持读书的理由有哪些? https://www.zhihu.com/question/561118089/answer/2737791711
  8. 20230120 个人理财 (上) https://river.zhubai.love/posts/2228053347062272000
  9. https://www.navalmanack.com/
  10. https://weread.qq.com/web/bookDetail/e1e32b00729fc94fe1e824d

我们大多数人都讨厌周一,却喜欢咖啡。Monday Coffee是一份免费的电子报,在这里我会分享自己正在使用、阅读、喜爱和感恩的东西等,来帮助你以积极的心态开始新的一周。

Most of us hate Mondays, but love coffee. Monday Coffee is a free newsletter here to share the things I’ve been using, reading, loving, feeling grateful for, and more to help you start your week off on a positive note.

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