NAVAL'S WRITING
LIFE FORMULAS I (2008)
These are notes to myself. Your frame of reference, and therefore your calculations, may vary. These are not definitions—these are algorithms for success. Contributions are welcome.
- Happiness = Health + Wealth + Good Relationships
- Health = Exercise + Diet + Sleep
- Exercise = High Intensity Resistance Training + Sports + Rest
- Diet = Natural Foods + Intermittent Fasting + Plants
- Sleep = No alarms + 8–9 hours + Circadian rhythms
- Wealth = Income + Wealth * (Return on Investment)
- Income = Accountability + Leverage + Specific Knowledge
- Accountability = Personal Branding + Personal Platform + Taking Risk?
- Leverage = Capital + People + Intellectual Property
- Specific Knowledge = Knowing how to do something society cannot yet easily train other people to do
- Return on Investment = “Buy-and-Hold” + Valuation + Margin of Safety [72]
NAVAL’S RULES (2016)
- Be present above all else.
- Desire is suffering. (Buddha)
- Anger is a hot coal you hold in your hand while waiting to throw it at someone else. (Buddha)
- If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day.
- Reading (learning) is the ultimate meta-skill and can be traded for anything else.
- All the real benefits in life come from compound interest.
- Earn with your mind, not your time.
- 99 percent of all effort is wasted.
- Total honesty at all times. It’s almost always possible to be honest and positive.
- Praise specifically, criticize generally. (Warren Buffett)
- Truth is that which has predictive power.
- Watch every thought. (Ask “Why am I having this thought?”)
- All greatness comes from suffering.
- Love is given, not received.
- Enlightenment is the space between your thoughts. (Eckhart Tolle)
- Mathematics is the language of nature.
- Every moment has to be complete in and of itself. [5]
Health, love, and your mission, in that order. Nothing else matters.