These notes were taken from Naval Ravikant’s podcast, which aired four years ago in 2024.
Name of podcast: Naval
Even though this podcast is super long (3 hours!) and pretty old, it still has the same valuable insights as Naval's tweetstorm.
Here are the notes from 1 hour in, I have broken this down into 3 three The Facts, The Story, and the Action. don’t forget to practice
To be unstoppable as you grow you must learn about these things:
1. Accountability:
Being able to keep up with your dealings, staying true to your curiosity, and to yourself about your actions.
2. Leverage:
That network, group, or thing you have that is your third door, that's your leverage in the market.
3. Judgment:
Decision-making, choosing when to make that hire and when to let someone go, when to take money from VC, and when to go lean. Making such judgments is key to financial growth, especially in this business world.
4. Specific knowledge:
While not everything can be taught, anything can indeed be learned. Specific knowledge is what guarantees you get paid at scale; it's the thing that helps make up you. It's not a thing that can be taught; it's a thing you figure out from observations, looking back at your past and seeing to yourself what do I have based on my genuine curiosity and how can I build on that. And while building, put an eye out for the commercial aspect of things while following your own obsessions.
In many fields, being the best in one area is challenging due to competition. However, being proficient in several related areas can offer unique opportunities. For instance, combining writing skills with a background in computer science and teaching can make you invaluable to small startups.
Specific knowledge is what you have; it's the thing that makes you a bear on a unicycle bouncing a ball in the air, that's specific knowledge. It has to be innate.
5. Learn to be a Builder and a Seller:
Building is hard, and selling is also hard. That's why most times you find two founders where one is a builder and the other a seller. But ultimately, the person who can both sell and build is going to be unstoppable. That's the person who as a CEO will win most of the time as long as they put in the energy.
Building is the hardest skill to develop as it requires more time and focus compared to learning how to sell. But in the long run, a good salesman will take what you have built to greater heights because if you have a good product and can't convince anyone to use it, it's going to die.
Learn how to sell and build. Become majorly focused on learning to have great communication, i.e., be a good communicator and a good thinker
Source:Origin Stories
In 1999, still only 25, Naval and four others co-founded Epinions, an online review network for restaurants and movies that predated Yelp and Rotten Tomatoes. Epinions was a forum where users asked questions and posted opinions. Naval’s startup became a dot-com star and merged with Dealtime, a free service to shoppers who were comparing products and prices on the Internet. Dealtime changed its name to Shopping.com and went public in 2004, finishing its first day at a value of $750 million.
It was a resounding success, except for one issue: Ravikant and three of his co-founders saw none of the money. $0. Nada.
The four later argued in a lawsuit that, during the merger, another cofounder and select venture funders conspired to hide the company’s true value. In January 2005, Ravikant and three of his co-founders filed a lawsuit against Benchmark, August Capital, and their co-founder Nirav Tolia claiming that to get approval for the merger, Naval and co. were misled to believe that (at the time of the merger), the company was worth "$23 million to $38 million", which was less than the $45 million that they had raised in outside capital, thereby making their shares worthless.
“It feels like being hit by a truck when you realize the company you founded is going public and you aren’t making any money. People are calling to congratulate you on the IPO, and you’ve got nothing.”
Thanks to the lawsuit, Naval’s reputation in Silicon Valley suffered tremendously; he was referred to as “radioactive mud” by the venture capital community as commentators thought it would open venture capitalists to future suits. Naval’s brother Kamal went to live with Naval during this difficult period.
The case was settled privately in 2005. "I am legally bound not to talk about it," Ravikant said. "And frankly I want to put it all behind me. What I will say is I came out of it with a very wide-eyed understanding of just how inefficient the venture fund-raising process is..."
Focus on Building Initially: For beginners, mastering a skill or building something valuable is a good starting point.
Selling Scales Better: Learn to sell, selling skills are easier to leverage and scale over time.
Build Specific knowledge: That is the best way to stand out and the best way path to succeed.
Communication is Key: Understanding the product and effectively communicating its value is crucial. Learn to communicate
5. Long-Term Play: Individuals who can build, sell, and understand the underlying product have immense unstoppable potential.
Communication is key. Those who understand their product, can build it, and effectively sell it, possess the ability to overcome obstacles and achieve success.
Thank you for reading!
Since this is a closed community, I kindly ask one thing: could you please take a screenshot of your personal best part of today's notes, something that challenged your thoughts, and share it with me?
You can do this by emailing them, sending them via WhatsApp, or making a tweet about them and tagging me @D_rounz. Thank you!
Drounz, from whatspodcasting
