Many highly intelligent people struggle to build real wealth. This counter-intuitive observation comes straight from Naval Ravikant, the legendary angel investor and philosopher-entrepreneur. In The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, he explains why trading time for money—even at very high hourly rates—will never lead to true financial freedom. Doctors, lawyers, and senior executives can earn impressive salaries, but the moment they stop working, the income stops. Real wealth is created through non-linear income: ownership (equity), intellectual property, or assets that keep paying you while you sleep.
Naval is not the only one preaching this gospel. Dan Koe, Nico Jeannen, and many modern creators have distilled the same ideas into an extremely practical three-stage wealth-building framework. Here it is, in both English and Chinese:
Stage 1: Build Cash Reserves with High-Income Skills
First, you must learn how to make money and—more importantly—how to keep it. Develop skills that the market pays premium rates for (coding, copywriting, sales, design, etc.). Live below your means. Save aggressively. The goal is to create a cash runway that gives you freedom to experiment later.
“The more money you save, the more options you have.”
Stage 2: Invest in Your Most Important Asset—Yourself
Once you have some capital, the highest ROI investment is almost always in your own mind and network. Learn to communicate clearly, sell ideas, build in public, gain leverage through persuasion and reputation. These are infinite-return investments: the better you get, the more opportunities compound.
“The return on becoming more persuasive, more charismatic, and better at gaining permission far exceeds any business you can start.”
Stage 3: Deploy Profits into Assets (with Unfair Advantages)
Now take the profits from Stage 1 & 2 and buy or build assets:
The simplest (and still excellent): Low-cost broad-market index funds (e.g., S&P 500 or total world stock ETFs).
The best for most people: Reinvest into your own business or creator journey.
The advanced play: Angel invest or start companies only in domains where you have a genuine unfair advantage.
Example: Dan Koe has been building software for 28 years → all his private investments revolve around software & AI because he can evaluate opportunities better than almost anyone.
The Core Truth
If you own nothing, you will spend your entire life renting everything. Equity, code, media, brands, audiences—these are the modern assets that scale non-linearly.
Start owning.