Naval Ravikant's formulas for life, Coinbase's CEO on being mission focused, and advice on ideas from Paul Graham

Welcome back to the Z Fellows newsletter! Every Monday we share 3 ideas - to help you build companies, ship products, and create your life's work.

1: Naval Ravikant’s formulas for life

“These are notes to myself. Your frame of reference, and therefore your calculations, may vary. These are not definitions—these are algorithms for success. Contributions are welcome.

→ Happiness = Health + Wealth + Good Relationships

→ Health = Exercise + Diet + Sleep

→ Exercise = High Intensity Resistance Training + Sports + Rest

→ Diet = Natural Foods + Intermittent Fasting + Plants

→ Sleep = No Alarms + 8-9 hours + Circadian rhythms

→ Wealth = Income + Wealth * (Return on Investment)

→ Income = Accountability + Leverage + Specific Knowledge

→ Accountability = Personal Branding + Personal Platform + Taking Risk?

→ Leverage = Capital + People + Intellectual Property

→ Specific Knowledge = Knowing how to do something society cannot yet easily train other people to do

→ Return on Investment = “Buy and Hold” + Valuation + Margin of Safety“

Source: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

2: Coinbase’s CEO on being mission focused

In 2020, Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, released a blog that declared his company would stay laser-focused on its cryptocurrency mission:

“I want Coinbase to be laser focused on achieving its mission, because I believe that this is the way that we can have the biggest impact on the world. We will do this by playing as a championship team, focus on building, and being transparent about what our mission is and isn't.

A championship team wants to win, and every teammate is willing to make sacrifices to achieve that. They have each other's back, and focus relentlessly on the long term goal, avoiding distractions.

There are many places that a company can choose to allocate its limited time and resources. There is never enough time to do everything, so companies need to choose what change they want to see in the world and focus there. It can take decades to move the needle on large global challenges. 

Change happens in the world only when a smart, talented, group of people come together to focus on a hard problem for a decade or more. Many companies never stand the test of time, because they decide to dabble in unrelated efforts, and distract and divide their workforce in the process. 

I don't think companies can succeed trying to do everything. Creating an open financial system for the world is already a hugely ambitious mission, and we could easily spend the next decade or two trying to move the needle on global economic freedom.“

Source: Coinbase is a mission focused company

3: Advice on ideas from Paul Graham

Best of The Week

See you next Monday,

- The Z Fellows Team

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