38 Weeks to Get Rich
Welcome to the “38 Weeks to Get Rich”, where each week we’ll break down a section from Naval’s iconic tweetstorm and interviews on the topics of wealth, freedom, money, status, and happiness.
The full PDF is available here.
What follows is my summary & key takeaways to help you digest the 127 page document.
Week 3: Free Markets
We’re the only animals who cooperate across genetic boundaries, because we can track credits and debits in voluntary exchanges.
Free markets are natural.
Free Markets (sometimes referred to as capitalism) is nothing created, it’s hard-wired into us. It’s the basis for every exchange we make. Whether that exchange is selling a house, buying a stock, or having a conversation (exchanging information).
If you don’t like the product I create, the price I offer, or the information I share; you’re free to go find someone else with a different product, price, or info. That’s the basis of a free-market. We aren’t forced to exchange with anyone we don’t want to.
Under this system, we can work together to create better products, services, and information because we can keep track of debits and credits. Who put in how much work? Who contributed how much? That’s capitalism: That we get paid according to the value we exchange.
Too many takers and not enough makers will plunge a society into ruin.
Not every person or government likes rewarding people for their contributions. Some try to make everything equal, and in doing so, create more takers than makers (because that person or government eliminated the incentives to make).
The more people who are making valuable things (stuff that people want–homes, art, products, services, music, etc.)
A Free Market works great with small-scale exchange between humans that’s voluntary, and doesn’t have a huge impact on others. But there are times when greed, politics, or people playing status games manipulate and influence our ability to choose who we work with, create with, or trade with.
If you want to create wealth for yourself and others, you’ll need to work with and/or trade with other people at some point. And the system that insures that works best is a free-market system.
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I look forward to sharing more next Friday about the role of luck in making money.
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