Naval Ravikant, often called the Sage of Silicon Valley, says there are two most important things in life. Knowing what you genuinely want, and knowing how to get it.
To figure out both, you need an extreme level of meta-cognition. Why? Because you have to be able to separate what you actually want from what other people want. I believe this kind of self-awareness is an absolute, non-negotiable prerequisite for running a business.
The Illusion of Borrowed Desires
Human beings have a natural tendency to mistake the desires of the people around them for their own. That is why most people assume making a lot of money is the ultimate happiness. Social media, where we spend most of our time, constantly reinforces the idea that money equals happiness.
I believe this applies not just to money, but to everything else too. I actually realized this while listening to podcasts from world-class entrepreneurs. My hobby has always been listening to these global founders and mapping out their mental models. When you look at extraordinary people, they all carry massive, world-changing missions.
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| Chasing someone else's grand vision doesn't inspire you. It burns you out |
Elon Musk is driven by making humanity a multi-planetary species. Sam Altman is consumed by the mission of creating AGI. These colossal visions become the fuel that makes them work like maniacs.
Because I listened to their podcasts every single day, I started to believe I needed a grand mission like that too. But the truth is, I did not have the vessel to hold that kind of vision. Yet because I was trying to blindly copy the mindsets of these global founders, all it gave me was immense stress and made me completely miserable.
What I actually want is far simpler. To create products and services I wish existed in the world, and share them with people who think like me. Making good money along the way would be a great bonus.
So these days, whenever I listen to those podcasts, I make a conscious, deliberate effort not to adopt their standards as my own. If I do not do that, I will habitually mistake other people's desires for mine. To truly know what you want, you have to take time for yourself and build your own standards. That is exactly what meta-cognition is.
Knowing Your Own Stats
I believe every person's baseline capabilities are already hardcoded into their DNA. There is a limit to what pure effort can overcome. So if you want to build a strategy to get what you want, you first have to understand your own stats completely.
There is a quote I repeat to myself every single day like a mantra, and it comes from Charlie Munger. If you have read my writing before, you have probably seen it more than once.
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| Picking the right game to play is the most important decision you will ever make |
To win the game of life, you have to choose a battlefield that favors you, and design a strategy that plays to your strengths, which is why Why Successful Entrepreneurs Set Timeframes Not Goals is such a critical shift in perspective. And to do that, you have to know yourself intimately.
For example, if you want to be good at baseball, you should not blindly copy the best player in the league. You should study someone with a similar physique to yours. I believe our intellectual strengths should be used the exact same way.
Finding Your Own Operating System
This goes beyond knowing what you are good at. It applies equally to how you actually work.
Many world-class entrepreneurs go absolutely hardcore. Just look at how Elon Musk and his team operate. So I tried it too. I worked my day job during the day and pushed myself through the night on my own projects, skipping sleep entirely.
My body broke down. I physically could not sustain it. The harder I forced myself, the worse my output got.
Through direct experimentation on my own body, I discovered that my efficiency drops sharply after dinner. So now I eat a full meal between lunch and dinner, and nothing after that. It is the only way I can stay in a state where I can deeply immerse myself in my work at night. That method fits me. It might not fit you at all.
The point is this. You have to know yourself down to these tiny, microscopic details to actually get what you want.
Analyze Yourself Before the Market
Naval Ravikant puts it perfectly. "Life is not about trying. It is about finding."
It means you should not just follow the standards others create or blindly accept existing systems. You have to build your own standards, run experiments on yourself, and construct your very own operating system.
In a battle, analyzing your opponent's strength matters. But analyzing your own is far more critical. Yet most people never seriously try to understand their own level. They obsess over data, customer reactions, and external factors. Of course, those things matter. But keep this with you. Asking yourself the hard questions, and truly knowing yourself, is the ultimate way to learn Why Top Entrepreneurs Put Value Before Money.
Of course, those things matter. But keep this with you. Asking yourself the hard questions, and truly knowing yourself, is far more important than any of it.
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