In Most Difficult Things in Life, The Solution is Indirect

Naval: Like in most interesting, difficult things in life, the solution is indirect.

That was part of the How to Get Rich tweetstorm, which is, if you want to get rich, you don’t directly just go for the money. I suppose you could like a bankster, but if you’re building something of value and you’re using leverage and you’re taking accountability and you’re applying your specific knowledge, you’re going to make money as a byproduct.

And you’re going to create great products, going to productize yourself and create money as a byproduct. The same way, if you want to be happy, you minimize yourself and you engage in high flow activities or engage in activities that take you out of your own self and you end up with happiness.

By the way, this is true in seduction as well. You don’t seduce a woman by walking up and saying, “I want to sleep with you.” That’s not how it works. Same with status. The overt pursuit of status signals low status, it’s a low status behavior to chase status because it reveals you as being lower in the status hierarchy in the first place.

It’s not the fact that everything has to be pursued indirectly. Many things are best pursued directly. If I want to drive a car, I get in and I drive the car. If I want to write something, then I just sit down and write something. But the things that are either competitive in nature or they seem elusive to us—part of the reason for that is that those are the remaining things that are best pursued indirectly.

像大多数有趣、困难的事情一样，解决方案不是直接得到的，它依赖于我们去创造价值、使用杠杆、承担责任、发挥自己的特定知识，这样创造财富就是顺带手的事。

这样，你将打造出卓越的产品，实现自我产品化（个人IP），并让金钱成为这一过程的副产品。同样地，如果你想获得幸福，就要收敛自我，投身于高心流状态的活动，或者参与那些能让你跳出“小我”的活动，最终收获幸福。

顺便说一下，这在追求异性方面也同样适用。你不能一上来就对一个女人说：“我想和你上床。” 这样可没用。追求地位也是如此。公然地追逐地位会显得你地位低下，因为这种行为本身就暴露了你原本在地位层级中处于较低位置。

并非所有事情都必须间接去追求。很多事情最好直接去做。如果我想开车，那就上车开就是了；如果我想写点东西，那就坐下来动笔写。但有些事情要么具有竞争性，要么对我们来说似乎难以企及——之所以如此，部分原因在于这些恰恰是最适合间接去追求的事情。

纳瓦尔简直是神一般的存在，致敬纳瓦尔！听一次有一次的醍醐灌顶，这次要落地哈！进窄门，先难后易，找到属于自己的康庄大道。他强调了一点：心流高心流状态，一定是让自己愉悦的，能乐意忘我地去做的，不计较得失，能帮助到他人的，还是自己擅长的事，又回归到三圈交集来~如此这般在做着自己喜欢事情的同时收获了社会价值别人认可，在给别人提供价值的同时收获认可和金钱等顺带手的事，实现了财富和心灵以及事务的自由。