Eric-Jorgenson The-Almanack-of-Naval-Ravikant indd

What is your definition of retirement?
Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imagi-
nary tomorrow. When today is complete, in and of itself, you’re 
retired.
How do you get there?
Well, one way is to have so much money saved that your passive 
income (without you lifting a finger) covers your burn rate.
A second is you just drive your burn rate down to zero—you 
become a monk.
A third is you’re doing something you love. You enjoy it so 
much, it’s not about the money. So there are multiple ways 
to retirement.
The way to get out of the competition trap is to be authen-
tic, to find the thing you know how to do better than anybody. 
You know how to do it better because you love it, and no one 
can compete with you. If you love to do it, be authentic, and 
then figure out how to map that to what society actually wants. 
Apply some leverage and put your name on it. You take the 
risks, but you gain the rewards, have ownership and equity in 
what you’re doing, and just crank it up. [77]

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B U I L D I N G W E A L T H · 79
Did your motivation to earn money drop after you become 
financially independent?
Yes and no. It did in the sense the desperation was gone.
But if anything, creating businesses and making money are 
now more of an “art.” [74]
Whether in commerce, science, or politics—history 
remembers the artists.
Art is creativity. Art is anything done for its own sake. What are 
the things that are done for their own sake, and there’s nothing 
behind them? Loving somebody, creating something, playing. 
To me, creating businesses is play. I create businesses because 
it’s fun, because I’m into the product. [77]
I can create a new business within three months: raise the 
money, assemble a team, and launch it. It’s fun for me. It’s really 
cool to see what can I put together. It makes money almost as 
a side effect. Creating businesses is the game I became good at. 
It’s just my motivation has shifted from being goal-oriented to 
being artistic. Ironically, I think I’m much better at it now. [74]
Even when I invest, it’s because I like the people involved, I like 
hanging out with them, I learn from them, I think the prod-
uct is really cool. These days, I will pass on great investments 
because I don’t find the products interesting.
These are not 100 percent-or-nothing things. You can start 
moving more and more toward that goal in your life. It’s a goal. 

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80 · T H E A L M A N A C K O F N A V A L R A V I K A N T
When I was younger, I used to be so desperate to make money 
that I would have done anything. If you’d shown up and said, 
“Hey, I’ve got a sewage trucking business, want to go into that?” 
I would have said, “Great, I want to make money!” Thank God 
no one gave me that opportunity. I’m glad I went down the 
road of technology and science, which I genuinely enjoy. I got 
to combine my vocation and my avocation.
I’m always “working.” It looks like work to others, but it feels 
like play to me. And that’s how I know no one can compete 
with me on it. Because I’m just playing, for sixteen hours a 
day. If others want to compete with me, they’re going to work, 
and they’re going to lose because they’re not going to do it for 
sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. [77]