Naval Ravikant, a successful entrepreneur and investor, discovered that wealth alone doesn’t bring happiness. His philosophy highlights that happiness is a skill, shaped by mindset, reduced desires, and balancing instant vs. delayed gratification. By applying these principles, anyone can cultivate lasting peace and fulfilment. Discover how Naval’s wisdom can transform your approach to happiness.
Author: Niklavs Pallu Caune
Naval Ravikant is an Indian-born American 50-year-old, who became successful as an entrepreneur and investor. He created a company, which is valued at $4 billion, and invested early in companies like Uber, Wish, Notion, and Twitter. After acquiring his riches, he understood that this did not make him happier, and he began an internal path to happiness. He started sharing his philosophy on twitter, his podcast « Nav.al », and guested famous podcasts like « The Joe Rogan Experience ». Naval Ravikant is now known across the world for his businesses and philosphy.
These are the 4 main ideas of Naval Ravikant’s way to happiness:
1. The Meaning of Happiness
Everyone has a different meaning of happiness. Recently, in my L1 class, my teacher asked the class what happiness meant to us. The responses were all different. For one person, it was when you forget that you have problems, for another it was a state of not feeling “bad” feelings, and for me, it was just feeling at ease. For Naval, happiness is a base state. He says, “happiness is the state when nothing is missing; the absence of desire”. He means that happiness is peace; peace is happiness at rest, and happiness is peace in motion. This means that someone who is happy does not necessarily smile non-stop.
« a happy person isn’t someone who is happy all the time. It is someone who effortlessly interprets events in such a way that they do not lose their innate peace. […] Most of it is going to come from acceptance, not from changing your external environment. »
2. Happiness Is a Skill
Just like working out, or cooking, happiness is a skill that you can master. But how, you may ask. It is simple: happiness is trial and error. You try things, and find out what makes you happier.
« It’s all trial and error. You just see what works. You can try sitting meditation. Did that work for you? Was it Tantra meditation or was it Vipassana meditation? […] Okay. None of those worked. But what if I tried yoga? What if I kite-surfed? What if I go car racing? »
For me, I found that working out, doing creative work, sleeping well, and spending time with real friends, made me happiest. You just have to find out which things work for you.
3. Envy and Desire are Enemies of Happiness
Some of us think of desire as a good thing. It makes us want to have more, giving us energy to do things. But what we fail to see, is that desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want. It is the pain and the unhappiness that gives us the energy and the drive to access what we desire, but if we merely want to be happy, it is stupid to desire a million things that we do not need. It will just make us miserable. What we can learn from this, is to reduce our desires to the things that really matter to us. It is going to bring you peace to care less, and to care only about things that are truly important. We can find out what really matters by asking ourselves, “Is this so important to me I will be unhappy unless it goes my way?” Most of the time, the answer to this will be no.
4. Instant Vs. Delayed Gratification, and How it Affects our Happiness
Have you ever asked yourself why some people become happier as time passes, while others become unhappier? This has a logical explanation in instant gratification and delayed gratification. Instant gratification refers to activities that gives you pleasure instantly, but makes your life worse in the long term. When you participate in them regularly, your happiness takes a hit, and progressively diminishes. E.g., playing video games, and using social media: activities so stimulating that they make other activities seem less exciting, or boring, while making you unhappier in the long term. Taking drugs gives you immense pleasure, but is followed by horrible withdrawal symptoms, and may worsen a one’s health. Delayed gratification is the opposite of this. These tasks are boring, unpleasurable, sometimes even painful, but they make you happier in the long run. E.g., exercising can be painful in the moment, but makes you healthier, happier, and more attractive in the large scheme of things. To be happy, it is best to reduce instant gratification activities, and increase delayed gratification pursuits. It is difficult, but slowly and surely, you will notice the results.
Having read this, keep in mind not to try to apply every rule at once. Keep them in the back of your mind, and try to use them where you can, and you may begin to notice a change.
Cover Image: defran from pixabay
Edited By: Hedvig Paulander
