The One Most Important Thing in Life

Nugget from Naval Ravikant, Lucius Seneca

Hey Friend!

Today I bring you a deep insight from Naval Ravikant and Lucius Seneca.

👤 Author

💡Nugget

 During a Periscope live event, Naval Ravikant got asked:

"What was the one most important thing you did to become successful?"

The transcription below is Naval's reply to that question.

In my opinion, beyond serving as a useful guide to become successful, it serves as a useful guide to live a life that is worth living. 

And we will see how this nugget is linked with a letter written by the stoic philosopher Lucius Seneca, almost 2000 years ago!

🟠 Naval Ravikant:

Source: Naval on Periscope (2018)

Anyone who has known me for a long time knows that my defining characteristic it's a combination of being very impatient and willful.

So, I don't like to wait. I hate wasting time. I'm very, very famous for being rude at parties, events, dinners… where the moment I figure out it's a waste of my time, I get up and I leave.

I went to a dinner at a friend's house recently. I went with my wife, and it was a small, intimate, twelve-person dinner party. And my friend had put together a very elaborate affair where we were going to sit there and it was like this fancy thing where you're blindfolded and then other people kind of feed you for four hours while you have conversation. And that sounded terrible to me. So I got up and I left after 10 minutes, even though it was this massive paid event.

And my friend understood, because he's a good friend of mine and he knows how I think. So he let me get away with it, but I've been doing that my entire life. The moment I figure out something is a waste of time, I leave immediately. Immediately!

So I have no time for tedious dinners, tedious ceremonies, tedious people.

I have no time for formality.

I have no time for dressing up.

I have no time for business trips… I came to the decision that business trips are never worth it so I just stopped going to business trips.

…

And all of this is broken glass. It does annoy people.

"People who don't value their time seem to get very offended by people who do."

- Ryan Holiday

But fundamentally, where I'm going with this is I valued my time!

Value your time. It is all you have. It is more important than your money. It's more important than your friends. It's more important than your… Anything! Your time is all you have. Do not waste your time.

And that doesn't mean you can't relax. I mean, what am I doing right now? I'm wasting time on Periscope by some people's definition. But I'm doing what I want. So that's okay. As long as you're doing what you want… that's not a waste of your time. But if you're spending your time not doing what you want, and you're not earning, and you're not learning, then what the heck are you doing?

Don't spend your time making other people happy. Other people being happy is their problem. It's not your problem.

"You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. 

I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be.

It's their mistake, not my failing."

- Richard Feynman

[Actually…] If you are happy, it makes other people happy. If you are happy, other people will ask you how you're happy, and they might learn from it. But you are not responsible for making other people happy.

To expand on this valuable idea, I will add a passage from Seneca's letter "On Saving Time".

🟠 Lucius Seneca:

Source: The Tao of Seneca - Volume 1

What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily? For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed. Whatever years be behind us are in death’s hands.

Therefore, Lucilius [the receiver of Seneca’s letter], do as you write me that you are doing: hold every hour in your grasp. Lay hold of today’s task, and you will not need to depend so much upon tomorrow’s. While we are postponing, life speeds by.

Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who will can oust us from possession. What fools these mortals be! They allow the cheapest and most useless things, which can easily be replaced, to be charged in the reckoning, after they have acquired them; but they never regard themselves as in debt when they have received some of that precious commodity—time! And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay.

There is a great line from Seneca which (I think) it summarizes all the above ideas very well...

“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life”

📁 All the ideas in this article are saved and classified in a searchable Database, which (as of July 2024) contains nearly 2,000 timeless ideas (sourced directly from the most influential doers and entrepreneurs — captured on books, interviews/podcasts and articles).

I call this Database the Doers Notebook, and I’ve recently opened it for anyone who wants it.

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Well, as the Latin motto goes, “A chief part of learning is simply knowing where you can find a thing.” And since it’s all 🔎 searchable, we only need to type a keyword to immediately get a list of insights related to it!

For instance, if I’m unsure about how to get more sales in my business, I can simply type the word “sales” and immediately get 88 search results! In this case from Jim Edwards, Peter Thiel, Naval Ravikant, Paul Graham, Sam Altman, Balaji Srinivasan, Nassim Taleb, and many other remarkable individuals.

It’s like having a 🧠 second brain from which we can pull wisdom on demand.

And this is super valuable because it can significantly decrease the error rate in our judgment.

“In an age of infinite leverage [code and media], judgment is the most important skill.”

- Naval Ravikant

I actually made a video where I went through the list of insights I got for the keywords “sales” and “creative”.

So, if you wanna get better at sales and learn to be more creative (and also see all the features of the database and how you can get access) then definitely check out the video 👇

💥 Stuff I Loved

(Highlight resurfaced on Readwise)

✍️ Essay

I recently wrote an essay on the topic of whether one should follow his passion, or rather become a “craftsman” (someone who focuses more on what he gives, than what he wants).

I wrote it for the organization Spread Great Ideas (which mission is very well defined by its own name!), and I received great inspiration and editing help from Brian David Crane (owner of Spread Great Ideas) for making this piece!

Craftsman Mindset vs. Passion Mindset: Why "Following Your Passion" is Bad Career Advice 👉 Click here to read the full essay

Wishing you a great weekend!

Julio xx

P.S. If you liked this article, you'll definitely enjoy my free 80-page ebook. It’s packed with 23 big ideas (from top influential doers and entrepreneurs) to become better, richer and wiser. Download your copy here!