Let's talk money

If you don’t want to become rich, this post is not for you. You can close this now and save a few mins of your life.

Ok, you are still here…

So you want to be rich.

But what does being rich mean to you?

Is it a specific number in the bank? Or is it luxury cars, designer watches and expensive vacations?

For me being rich is when you don’t have to work for money anymore. When you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow. When you can spend today doing what you love - reading, exploring the world, pursuing a passion project, spending time with family.

How do you reach a point where you don’t have to work for money anymore?

1. You have so much money saved up that your passive income from that exceeds your spending

2. You are doing something you love - so it’s not about the money

3. You spend nothing - become a monk

The best case scenario for 99% people in the world would be a combination of points 1 and 2. Wouldn’t it be awesome to work on something you love and make so much money out of it that the passive income from that covers your spending for the rest of your life?

Let’s dissect the best way to do that in 2023.

Naval says “You get rich by giving society what it wants but does not know how to get, at scale“

Big wealth in the 20th century was created by businesses involved in extraction of oil, natural gas and other resources. Times have changed. Internet has revolutionised learning and business. Ideas and attention are the new oil. Most of modern wealth will be created in the ideas space.

If you are an ambitious young person today, you should go into the business of ideas. Business being the key word here because you want to capture the leverage that comes with code or media. Examples are apps, books, blogs, podcasts etc.

Chamath Palihapitiya is a billionaire VC who scaled Facebook to 1B users. He recently appeared on Lex Fridman’s podcast.

He expressed his belief that creators will capture trillions of dollars in enterprise value and billions of active users in the next few years. 

During the first wave of the internet we built platforms (Apple, Google). These platforms captured trillions of dollars in value by attracting billions of active users. The second wave focused on social media apps (Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter). These apps sat on platforms and were atomised versions of the platforms but the value they created was the same. Chamath argues that the next most obvious atomic unit are content creators and that they will capture the same value.

I know it seems far fetched but Mr. Beast has been offered $1B for his YT channel. Joe Rogan has already signed a $100M deal with Spotify.

Here’s why I think Chamath has a point:

1. The time to market is really low in creator businesses, you can get feedback in real time and iterate way faster than traditional businesses

2. Media has zero marginal cost of reproduction. You can create a digital course once and it can get thousands of sales over years. Whether you sell 1 unit or 1000, the input effort/cost is same

3. Data Darkness - It used to be really easy for businesses to find customers online. However with the new data privacy policies it is no longer easy to find audiences if you don’t have it

4. In most media businesses the product and distribution are essentially the same thing. How you market the product is also how you fulfil it

Old model (Product-Market Fit)

Build a product → Develop ideal customer profile → Find ICP

New model (Market-Product Fit)

Grow an audience → Know pains and desires → Build solution

New model refined (Founder-Market-Product Fit)

Build audience around interests → Know pains and desires → Build solution

Pursuing your genuine interests will help you escape competition and stay consistent. Nobody can beat you at being “you”. The reason Joe Rogan is irreplaceable is because his brand is build on his genuine interests - MMA, comedy, conspiracy theories, psychedelics, hunting

Is this easy?

Absolutely not. Building a winning personal brand while pursuing your genuine interests and turning it into a successful business is really hard. It might be the hardest thing you ever do but it will also be the most rewarding.

Start creating. Start building. A life of freedom and purpose awaits.

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Brand Strategy - Get yourself a winning Twitter brand here

Twitter Growth Guide - Skip the beginner hell and go from 0 to 500 followers in 30 days. Join 190+ students here

Endless Content Playbook - Never run out of content ideas ever again. Use this framework and save 20+ hrs a week. Join 500+ students here