“The three big ones in life are wealth, health, and happiness. We pursue them in that order but their importance is in the reverse.” -Naval Ravikant

This article explores the mindset and timeless principals of a prolific Investor and Silicon Valley Entrepreneur, Naval Ravikant. Naval Ravikant (@naval) is the CEO and co-founder of AngelList. He’s invested in more than 100 companies, including Uber, Twitter, Yammer, and many others. One of the most viral tweetstorms (a series of related tweets posted by a Twitter user in quick succession) of all time is tweet on how to get rich without getting lucky. Below we have made an attempt to convert his tweets in a format which can remain timeless and reach a broader audience.

Seek wealth, not money or status

Wealth is having assets that earn money while you sleep: businesses, products, media, robots, investments, land. Wealth is for freedom, not conspicuous consumption.

Money is how we transfer wealth; it’s the social credits and debits of other people’s time. Money isn’t going to solve all your problems, but it’s going to solve your money problems.

“The reason you want wealth is because it buys you your freedom. So, you don’t have to wear a tie like a collar around your neck. So, you don’t have to wake up at 7:00 AM, and rush to work, and sit in commute traffic. So, you don’t have to waste away your entire life grinding all the productive hours away into a soulless job that doesn’t fulfill you.

So, the purpose of wealth is freedom. It’s nothing more than that. It’s not to buy fur coats, or drive Ferraris, or sale yachts, or jet around the world in your Gulfstream. That stuff gets really boring, and really stupid really fast. It’s really just so that you are your own sovereign individual.”

“The reason you want wealth is because it buys you your freedom. So, you don’t have to wear a tie like a collar around your neck. So, you don’t have to wake up at 7:00 AM, and rush to work, and sit in commute traffic. So, you don’t have to waste away your entire life grinding all the productive hours away into a soulless job that doesn’t fulfill you.

Making money isn’t about luck

Making money isn’t about luck. It’s about becoming the kind of person who makes money. If you lost all your money, you should be able to recreate that wealth.

“I like to think that if I lost all my money and if you drop me on a random street in any English-speaking country, within 5, 10 years I’d be wealthy again, because it’s just a skill set that I’ve developed and I think anyone can develop. In 1,000 parallel universes, you want to be wealthy in 999 of them. You don’t want to be wealthy in the 50 of them where you got lucky. So, we want to factor luck out of it.”

Understand that ethical wealth creation is possible. If you secretly despise wealth, it will elude you.

The best way to understand this: create value for someone in exchange for cash. Your soul will get it. Then your brain will eventually catch up.

The opposite is also true. If you make money is some sleazy way, your soul gets it, even if you force your brain to think otherwise.

You won’t get rich renting your time

You won’t get rich renting out your time, because your inputs are too closely tied to your outputs. You’re not earning while you’re sleeping.

“The most dangerous things are heroin, and a monthly salary.” – Nassim Taleb

“In almost any salaried job, even at one that’s paying a lot per hour like a lawyer, or a doctor, you’re still putting in the hours, and every hour you get paid. So, what that means is when you’re sleeping, you’re not earning. When you’re retired, you’re not earning. When you’re on vacation, you’re not earning. And you can’t earn non-linearly.”

Pick business partners with high intelligence, energy, and, above all, integrity.

“You are the average of the five people you hang out most with."

"Don't partner with cynics and pessimists. Their beliefs are self-fulfilling.”

Live below your means for freedom

People living far below their means enjoy a freedom that people upgrading their lifestyles just can’t fathom.

Related: Why Living Like a Student Has a Massive Impact on Your Long-term Wealth

Upgrading your lifestyle too quickly will keep you in a perpetual wage slave trap.

Develop Specific Knowledge

Develop specific knowledge in some area so that you can set yourself apart from everyone else in the market.

“The classic example of specific knowledge is investing. But it could be anything from judgment in running a fleet of trucks to weather forecasting.”

Specific knowledge can be learned by pursuing your genuine curiosity, talents and passion. Build specific knowledge where you are a natural.

“Everyone is a natural at something. And then there are probably multiple things you’re natural at because personalities and humans are very complex. So, we want to be able to take the things that you are natural at and combine them so that you automatically, just through sheer interest and enjoyment, end up top 25% or top 10% or top 5% at a number of things.”

Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now.

Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others.

When specific knowledge is taught, it’s through apprenticeships, not schools.

Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative. It cannot be outsourced or automated.

Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative. It cannot be outsourced or automated.

Embrace accountability, and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage.