Lyrics The Purpose of Wealth Is Freedom - Akira the Don, Naval Ravikant

The Purpose of Wealth Is Freedom

Everyone vaguely knows
That they want to be wealthy
But they don’t have
A good set of principles
To do it by
Wealth is then thing that you really want
Wealth is assets that earn while you sleep
Wealth is the factory
The robots
That’s cranking out things
Wealth is the computer program that’s running at night
That’s serving
Other
Customers
Wealth is
Even money in the bank that is being reinvested into other assets
And into other businesses
Even a house can be a form of wealth
Because you can rent it out
Wealth is
Businesses and assets that can earn while you sleep
Wealth is
Businesses and assets that can earn while you sleep
But really the reason you want wealth
Is because it buys you freedom
The purpose of wealth
Is 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 your productive hours away
Into a soulless job that doesn’t fulfill you
It’s really just so that you are your own sovereign individual
You’re not going to get that unless you really want it
And the entire world wants it
And the entire world is working hard at it
And to some extent it is competitive
It’s a positive sum game
But there are competitive elements to it
Because there’s a finite amount of resources right now in society
And to get the resources to do what you want
You have to stand out
Money is how we transfer wealth
Money is social credits
It is the ability to have credits and debits of other people’s time
If I do my job right
If I create value for society
Society says
«Oh, thank you
We owe you something in the future for the work that you did in the past
Here’s a little IOU
Let’s call that money.»
Wealth is
Businesses and assets that can earn while you sleep
Wealth is
Businesses and assets that can earn while you sleep
There are fundamentally two huge games in life that people play
One is the money game
Because money is not going to solve all of your problems
But it’s going to solve all of your money problems
I think people know that
They realize that, so they want to make money
But at the same time
Many of them deep down believe that they can’t make it
They don’t want any wealth creation to happen
They sort of virtue signal by attacking the whole enterprise by saying
«Well, making money is evil.
You shouldn’t do it.
Blah blah blah.»
They’re actually playing the other game
Which is a status game
They’re trying to be high status
In the eyes of other people watching
Status is just your ranking in the social hierarchy
Status is just your ranking in the social hierarchy
So
Wealth is not a zero-sum game
Everybody in the world can have a house
Because you have a house doesn’t take away from my ability to have a house
If anything, the more houses that are built
The easier it becomes to build houses
The more we know about building houses
The more people that can have houses
So
Wealth is a very positive sum game
Status, on the other hand, is a zero-sum game
It’s a very old game
We’ve been playing it since monkey tribes
It’s hierarchical
Who’s number one?
Who’s number two?
Who’s number three?
And for number three to move to number two
Number two has to move out of that slot
So, status is a zero-sum game
Politics is an example of a status game
Even sports is an example of a status game
To be the winner, there must be a loser
I don’t fundamentally love status games
They play an important role in our society
So we can figure out who’s in charge
But fundamentally
You play them because they’re a necessary evil
Wealth is
Businesses and assets that can earn while you sleep
Wealth is
Businesses and assets that can earn while you sleep
But really the reason you want wealth
Is because it buys you your freedom
The purpose of wealth
Is freedom
But there’s always a subtle competition going on between status and wealth
For example, when journalists attack rich people
They’re really bidding for status
They’re saying, «No, the people are more important
And I, the journalist, represent the people
And therefore I am more important»
The problem is that by playing these status games
To win at a status game
You have to put somebody else down
That’s why you should avoid status games in your life
Because they make you into an angry combative person
You’re always fighting to put other people down
To put yourself and the people you like up
Just realize that most of the times
When you’re trying to create wealth
You’re actually getting attacked by someone else
And they’re trying to look like a goody-two shoes
But really what they’re doing
Is they’re trying to up their own status at your expense
They’re just playing a different game
And it’s a worse game
It’s a zero-sum game
Instead of a positive sum game