Say “No” without Felling Bad
Naval Ravikant suggests that saying “no” without feeling bad involves understanding your priorities and the value of your time. Here’s how he frames it:
1. Set Clear Priorities: If you're clear on what truly matters to you, it's easier to say no to things that don't align with your goals. By prioritizing your time, you eliminate the guilt of declining requests because you’re focusing on what’s important.
2. Embrace the Trade-offs: Recognize that every “yes” is a “no” to something else, typically your time or energy. Saying “no” is a way to protect your resources and invest them wisely.
3. Respectful Decline: Be polite and firm, without over-explaining. A simple, “I’m focusing on other priorities right now” can be sufficient, ensuring that you decline gracefully.
4. No Need for Guilt: You can say “no” while still respecting others and yourself. If you’re honest and aligned with your own values, there’s no reason to feel bad for declining requests that don’t serve your life or goals.
My mediocre superpower, if this qualifies mediocre enough, would be having the ability to say no without feeling guilty. And I kind of feel like especially now with AngelList, we're in this position where we've sort of taken on the mantle of trying to help all the startups. And you can't help all the startups. Most of them are not ready to be funded. Most of them do not deserve to be funded. You can't meet with them all. They all want to meet with you. They all want personal time. They all want personal advice. And you have to triage. And so you have to say no all day long. And when you say no, you just feel bad because that's, you know, you're setting out to do the opposite. And so I'd just love to be able to say no without feeling bad about it and make my day a lot easier. I end U in a lot of meetings that I feel guilty I get guilted into them but I really don't want that meeting. I want to get out. Your solution could have been a way for you to say yes to everything, like you just want to be let off the hook. Ohh, yeah. But that would be a mediocre superpower. If you could say yes to everything, then, you know, that's a that's a real superpower, yeah. I suppose, I suppose how many meetings? Because you seem like a pretty blunt guy. I'm surprised you got guilted. I have now gotten ruthless about killing useless meetings. I own the domain. I don't do coffee.com, so the jerk for awhile I would say responses from Naval that I don't do coffee.com, but that was too much of A jerk. And I like coffee and San Francisco's great coffee, so. I still do a couple of meetings, but I really try and solve everything by e-mail first say look, if it's if it can be solved by e-mail, let's do that because then you can help 30 companies in the same time period you could have met one. Or if you can't do that, let's do a phone call. If you can't do that, then let's do a Skype. If you can't do that, let's do a meeting and let's bundle them together, just four of them in one hour and just be very efficient. Cut to the chase and actually harsh tagger from YC told me this, that you know, when he shortened the amount of time that he spent in office hours, it got way more efficient. There was just. There's no time for someone to come in and kind of start doing the pleasantries. They know they have 15 minutes for the next guy walks in. So they're just more efficient. And I would say the startups like don't spend your time doing meetings unless you really, really have to. I really think networking is overrated. There's all these articles about like, ohh, you gotta network more. And this is how you, it makes me want to vomit, right? Go do something great and your network will instantly emerge. If you build a great product or if you get a good customer base, I guarantee you we will get you funded. You will not have to go take internal meetings. Building relationships years in advance, all that meeting stuff you're doing, shaking hands, you know, do it for recruiting, do it to learn from really, really smart people. But you gotta make sure you have something to offer them to. Otherwise you're just taking. But just sort of networking. If you're standing around an event with a name tag and a glass in your hand and then that kind of includes this event, not think about it. Yeah, it's sort of. You're doing it for entertainment. You're doing it because that's your leisure time. This is FarmVille. This is not your work time. This is your leisure time. Yeah, let's just be clear for those of you who told your coworkers, oh, I'm going to an important no, it's not work, This is entertainment. If the beer and pizza didn't tip you off.
“Behind every great product there’s at least one engineer who knows the entire stack, takes problems personally, and jumps in and solves them.
Without regard to ownership, credit, or chain of command.
If you don’t know who this is in your company, I have bad news for you…”
- Naval Ravikant
Medical Writer and Researcher | Crafting a career in medical and scientific writing, academia, and clinical research in cancer and metabolic health l I share protocols for optimizing health and fitness
A busy calendar and a busy mind will destroy your ability to create anything great.
- Naval
Busyness is inversely correlated with meaningful actions.
The more busy you are, the less meaningful actions you can stack on top of one another to create great outcomes.
Step back, reflect on what's important, dedicate your best time to it, and recharge the rest of the day.
Good morning & happy weekend
Clarity isn't about knowing what you want to do with your life, it's about knowing what you want to do this week.
You don't need to have it all figured out. You just need to know your next step.
- James Clear
The single trait I've noticed in people who do great things is figuring it out. Most people never do anything unless they are told to or there's an immediate and pleasurable benefit. Successful people learn and do anything it takes to get what they want, with or without help.
- Dan Koe
Choose the non-emotional response to any given situation and see how much easier your life becomes.
- Naval Ravikant
AI Agent and AI Automation Expert | ex-BCG, Morningside AI, Glovo, Amazon | Founder at SmarterPath AI | Leveraging AI to help business leaders boost revenue & reduce costs
I came across The Almanack of Naval Ravikant about 3-4 years ago.
Since then, I’ve made it a tradition to revisit the book every year because the lessons are timeless and always relevant, no matter how many times I read them.
Some of the lessons I keep coming back to include:
- The Four Types of Leverage: capital (money), collaboration (working with others), code (software), and content (media) are the four types of leverage you can use to do more with less and compound value at scale
- “Learn to Build and Learn to Sell”: creating something of value and being able to sell it are high leverage skills. If you can master both, you'll be unstoppable
- “Learn to Love to Read”: reading is one of the best ways to build knowledge. If you read what truly interests you, you'll end up developing a love for reading, and from there a passion for lifelong learning
Every time I read over these lessons again, they make me reflect on how I think, work and approach life.
If you haven’t read it, I suggest you do—there aren’t many books that I'd recommend more than The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.
💡a glimpse into Naval's wisdom:
💎The measure of wealth is freedom.
🧠A fit body, a calm mind, a house full of love. These things cannot be bought - they must be earned.
✅The quality of your mind is the quality of your life.
🪝Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.
🧞♀️Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.
🛝Play long-term games with long-term people.
AI Enthusiast | 20yr old social media wizard Building brands with data-driven strategies Fueling brands with AI
Ever feel like everyone’s got an opinion on YOUR journey? 🚀 Time to silence the noise and make the move that’s truly yours. Ready to take control?
Success is a series of intentional actions, not just a single leap. 🌱
As Naval Ravikant wisely teaches, focus on progress, embrace small wins, and watch how they compound into greatness. Start today—your future self will thank you.
Medical Writer and Researcher | Crafting a career in medical and scientific writing, academia, and clinical research in cancer and metabolic health l I share protocols for optimizing health and fitness
A busy calendar and a busy mind will destroy your ability to create anything great.
- Naval.
Busyness is inversely correlated with meaningful actions.
The more busy you are, the less meaningful actions you can stack on top of one another to create great outcomes.
Step back, reflect on what's important, dedicate your best time to it, and recharge the rest of the day.
Mentor & Executive Coach(ICF CERTIFIED), Engage, Enable...Empower, Former MD - Galderma India, Mentor to CEOs across a few sectors
Certified NLP practitioner.
Whenever I am in Chicago , I make it a point to visit Navy pier light house and my mind always jumps to Stephen Covey’s LIGHT HOUSE PRINCIPLES
The Lighthouse Story
Covey opened with a story of Captain Horatio Hornblower. As the story goes, one night at sea, Horatio awakens to find that a ship is in his sea-lane about 20 miles away and refuses to move.
Horatio commands the other ship to move starboard, 20 degrees at once.
The other ship refuses and tells Horatio that he should move his ship starboard, 20 degrees at once.
Next, Horatio tries to pull rank and size on the other ship, stating that he’s a captain and that he’s on a large battle ship.
The other ship replies, and it turns out it’s not actually a ship, but a lighthouse.
The take away from the story is, there are lighthouse principles–You don’t break them.
You only break yourself against them.
Don’t break yourself against lighthouse principles.
Naval Ravikant's Life-Changing Advice for Success and Happiness 🚀🌟
In our pursuit of success, many of us chase external markers—wealth, status, recognition—believing they will bring us happiness. However, Naval Ravikant challenges this notion, emphasizing that true fulfillment comes from within.
Please watch:
https://lnkd.in/dKsjJVCN
A matter of choice 🔎📜
In a world conducive to quick fixes and immediate gratification, it’s often difficult to make the ‘hard choice’. Food delivered to your doorstep at the tap of a screen, having the ability to ‘snooze’ through Siri & applications that offer evanescent 10 second videos to tickle your dopamine receptors.
Remember, the selection you make today will look to shape every element of your future, micro-choices to macro-choices.
- Push yourself physically, frame this as ‘play’ and you’ll look to reap long-lasting benefit.
- Read difficult books, it may take you 3 months to work through it, yet know you’re adding to your specific knowledge.
- Reduce your screen time, you’re inadvertently enhancing your ability to focus, you never know when you may need this.
- Cliche yes, however, ‘the body is a temple’ and your only vessel, fuel it correctly.
Hard choices now = an easy life in the future, the equation is that simple.
What hard choices have you made recently and how have they benefited you?
Image courtesy of Naval Ravikant: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.
🚀 Finished the First Part of Almanack of Naval Ravikant: Building Wealth 💡
As I wrap up this section, here are the final key takeaways:
1️⃣ Luck Turns Into Destiny 🍀
Luck becomes deterministic when you build your character right. Your reputation, integrity, and long-term thinking turn luck into destiny. 🌟 Be the trusted dealmaker, and people will seek you out just for the integrity you’ve built. 💼
2️⃣ Patience is Key ⏳
Great people achieve great outcomes, but it takes time. Every successful person I (Naval Ravikant) met early in my career became successful, but it didn’t happen overnight. 🕒 Be patient, apply specific knowledge with leverage, and you will get what you deserve. 🎯
Moral of the story: Build your character, be patient, and success will follow. 🚀
Stay tuned for more as I continue this enlightening journey! 📚💥
#Wealth#Patience#Luck#Destiny#Success#NavalRavikant#BookJourney
