Finding Time to Invest in Yourself

Finding Time to Invest in Yourself. An essay by Naval, from January 2020.

Renting out your time

From Naval's How to Get Rich podcast with Nivi, a common question: I have a job, so where do I find time to invest in myself?

Naval's starting point: early on, you'll likely have to rent out your time. That's fine, but only while you're learning and saving.

Best is a field nobody can teach yet, where apprenticeship is the only way in: new, fast-growing fields, or ones like investing where every case differs.

Paying to be in the room

A prized first job in Silicon Valley: chief of staff to a founder. You follow them around and do whatever they need.

Someone with graduate degrees may end up doing the CEO's laundry. But they also sit in the rooms that matter: fundraising, stress, drama.

Warren Buffett offered to work for Benjamin Graham for free. Graham's reply: “You're overpriced.” An apprenticeship costs you something.

The steepest learning curve

Need the paycheck? Then innovate inside your job. Take on new problems and responsibilities, and seek out the part where you learn fastest.

Steer clear of repetitive drudgery. Work a routine could do is just waiting to be automated.

Even a barista can do it: get to know the regulars and find new ways to delight them. Managers and owners notice.

Care like a founder

What founders find hardest is hiring people with a founder mentality. Naval's plain translation: people who care enough.

But I'm not paid enough to care, people say. Naval disagrees: you are. What you learn by caring is part of the pay.

That learning is what lets you start something of your own later. Nearly any job can teach you a lot, if you give it a lot.

Accountability, starting now

Of How to Get Rich's four ideas, judgment takes years, and leverage mostly comes later. Code and media you can learn on nights and weekends.

But accountability you can take today. Volunteer to own what nobody else wants. Your name is on it now, so you have to deliver.

Say a factory owner is always worried about raising money. You're good with numbers, so you help. Before long, you're the heir apparent.

So don't fixate on short-term pay. Solve problems others can't, and people will rally behind you. The leverage follows.

Timely and timeless knowledge

Specific knowledge comes in two kinds. Timely: master machine learning right as it takes off. Great, until the field becomes old news.

Timeless knowledge, like being persuasive, usually starts early in life, and it never stops being useful.

Alone, it's too generic. So stack skills, as Scott Adams says: persuasion, plus accounting, plus chipmaking. Now you're the best chip salesperson, later CEO.

Timely knowledge lives in technology, the frontier: whatever doesn't work yet. Bring a timeless skill there, and you've struck gold.

Outputs, not hours

Companies can't easily measure output, so they measure hours. That habit comes from farms and factories, where hours put in tracked what came out.

Today it's wildly nonlinear: one good investment can be worth a hundred million dollars. The best engineers ship the one thing that matters, on time.

Make your output visible and measurable, and share the credit. Some roles, like consulting, trade visibility for independence. No accountability? Do something different.

The catch: accountability means more credit, and more blame. Stick your neck out and you'll get hit. You grow a thick skin.

Learned only on the job

Specific knowledge scales through apprentices. Naval co-founded Spearhead, which gives young founders a checkbook and helps them learn to invest.

The surprise: their classes are largely worthless. The general advice fits in an hour. What helps is office hours on real deals.

That's the sign of specific knowledge: no textbook can hold it. Ask an expert what a typical day looks like, and they say it depends.

The episode ends on a joke: even the mafia ran on apprenticeship. The way to run a family was to start as the boss's driver.

In short

Rent out your time only while you're learning and saving, ideally as an apprentice.

Inside any job, find the steepest learning curve, and care like a founder.

Take on accountability now. Judgment and leverage come later.

Build specific knowledge on the job, where your output can be seen.

The original is short, and better than this. Read it: nav.al/finding-time