💙 The Best Book I’ve Ever Read on Building Wealth

5 Lessons That Can Change Your Approach to Freedom and Success

From: Just West of Otay Lakes

Hey – It’s Luis.

Welcome to Day 5 of the 30-Day Writing Challenge!

On Saturday, I watched the latest episode of Lioness. Tonight, I caught up on Dune: Prophecy.

There are countless books about building wealth, and I’ve read my fair share. But the best one I’ve found is The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Eric Jorgenson.

Here’s why:

Reason #1: Understand How Wealth is Created

“Wealth is the thing you want. Wealth is assets that earn while you sleep. Wealth is the factory, the robots, cranking out things. Wealth is the computer program that’s running at night, serving other customers. Wealth is even money in the bank that is being reinvested into other assets, and into other businesses.”

For me, wealth is about freedom—freedom of time, money, relationships, and purpose. Wealth is having assets that work for you while you sleep, supporting the life you want to live.

Reason #2: Why Find and Build Specialized Knowledge

“Specific knowledge is found much more by pursuing your innate talents, your genuine curiosity, and your passion. It’s not by going to school for whatever is the hottest job; it’s not by going into whatever field investors say is the hottest.”

Copywriting is my form of specialized knowledge. Over the past 20 years, I’ve invested time, energy, and money into mastering it. Combining it with AI, strategic thinking, and email marketing has created outsized results for my clients and me.

Reason #3: Why Play Long-Term Games with Long-Term People

“When you find the right thing to do, when you find the right people to work with, invest deeply. Sticking with it for decades is really how you make the big returns in your relationships and in your money. So, compound interest is very important.”

Not all customers are created equal. Be quick to “fire bad customers” and focus on the right ones. Bad customers can drain your energy and sap the life out of your business.

Reason #4: Why Build or Buy Equity in a Business

“It’s ownership versus wage work. If you are paid for renting out your time, even lawyers and doctors, you can make some money, but you’re not going to make the money that gives you financial freedom. You’re not going to have passive income where a business is earning for you while you are on vacation.”

Warren Buffett said it best:
“The best business is a royalty on the growth of others, requiring very little capital itself…such as the top international advertising agencies.”

The goal is to get paid for your outputs, not your inputs. This shift is key to achieving greater freedom of time and money.

Reason #5: Why Find a Position of Leverage

“What you want in life is to be in control of your time. You want to get into a leveraged job where you control your own time and you’re tracked on the outputs. If you do something incredible to move the needle on the business, they have to pay you. Especially if they don’t know how you did it because it’s innate to your obsession or your skill or your innate abilities, they’re going to have to keep paying you to do it.”

Naval continues:
“Code and media are permissionless leverage. They’re the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep.”

If you’re interested in building wealth, I can’t recommend this book enough.

P.S. What’s the best book you’ve read on building wealth? Let me know—I’d love to add it to my list!