The Person I Call Most for Startup Advice
“Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.” – Naval Ravikant
Naval Ravikant (@naval) is the CEO and a co-founder of AngelList. He previously co-founded Epinions, which went public as part of Shopping.com, and Vast.com. He is an active angel investor and has invested in more than 100 companies, including more than a few “unicorn” mega-successes.
His deals include Twitter, Uber, Yammer, Postmates, Wish, Thumbtack, and OpenDNS, which Cisco just bought for $635 million in cash.
BUT, even if you have zero interest in startups or investing, this episode is well worth your time. This is really about the habits and beliefs of a highly successful (and happy) person.
Naval has refined his way of living in very unique ways, and you can borrow what he’s learned, read the books that have changed him, and experiment with the habits he has developed through trial and error.
Enjoy this conversation with a curious character!
Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as”.
Want to hear another podcast on meditation and “spirituality”? — Listen to my conversation with Sam Harris, PhD. In the below episode, we discuss “spirituality,” neuroscience, his meditation practice, and more (stream below or right-click here to download):
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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What do you still want to know about investing, whether in startups or elsewhere? Or: What was your favorite takeaway from Naval? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Enjoy!
Selected Links from the Episode
Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It by Kamal Ravikant
Lying by Sam Harris
Surely You Must Be Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Striking Thoughts by Bruce Lee
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Read the Melting Asphalt blog
Read the Dilbert blog, specifically, The Day You Became a Better Writer
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Go on a meditation retreat with noetic.org
Don’t Shoot the Dog! by Karen Pryor
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
Poor Charlie’s Almanac by Charlie Munger
Illusions by Richard Bach
The Origins of Virtue by Matt Ridley
Influence by Robert Cialdini
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
by Patrick Rothfuss
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
The Secret Life of Salvadore Dali by Salvadore Dali
“What Do You Care What Other People Think?” by Richard Feynman
Connect with Naval Ravikant:
AngelList | Startup Boy Blog | Twitter
Learn more about Tim on AngelList
Show Notes
On the intensity of Naval Ravikant [6:55]
On uncompromising honesty [16:54]
How AngelList and Venture Hacks came to be [20:09]
What Naval looks for when deciding to invest in a founder [25:24]
Common “wives tales” in venture capital [32:39]
What books, outside the startup world, have most improved Naval’s ability to invest? [36:54]
Greatest investing hits and misses [51:49]
When you think of the successful people, who is the first that comes to mind? [58:19]
Meditative practices [1:00:58]
How to replace bad habits with good habits [1:07:06]
On setting stakes and awards [1:24:49]
How to treat your life like a movie [1:34:44]
Overused words and phrases [1:39:39]
Early life education and the importance of “loving to read” [1:43:19]
Advice for his younger self [1:51:09]
Describing the first 60 minutes of each day [1:52:40]
If you could have one billboard anywhere, where would it be and what would it say? [2:04:19]
People Mentioned
Marcus Aurelius
Sam Harris
Bruce Lee
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Scott Adams
Steve Jobs
Marc Andreessen
Satoshi Nakamoto
Elon Musk
Charlie Munger
