When You Truly Work for Yourself

Nivi: From April 2nd: “When you truly work for yourself, you won’t have hobbies, you won’t have weekends, and you won’t have vacations, but you won’t have work either.” Naval: This is the paradox of working for yourself, which every entrepreneur or every self-employed person is familiar with, which is that when you start working for yourself, you basically sacrifice this work-life balance thing. You sacrifice this work-life distinction. There’s no more nine-to-five. There’s no more office. There’s no one who’s telling you what to do. There’s no playbook to follow. At the same time, there’s nothing to turn off. You can’t turn it off. You are the business. You are the product. You are the work. You are the entity, and you care. If you’re doing something that’s truly yours, you care very deeply so you can’t turn it off. And that’s the curse of the entrepreneur. But the benefit of the entrepreneur is that if you’re doing it right, if you’re doing it for the right reasons or the right people in the right way, and if you can set aside the stress of not hitting your goals, which is real and hard to set aside, then it doesn’t feel like work. And that’s when you’re most productive. You are basically only measured on your output. And you’re only held up to the bar that you raised for yourself. So it can be extremely exhilarating and freeing. And this is why I said a long time ago that a taste of freedom can make you unemployable. And so this is exactly that taste of freedom. It makes you unemployable in the classic sense of nine-to-five and following the playbook and having a boss. But once you have broken out of that, once you’ve walked the tight rope without a net, without a boss, without a job—and by the way, this can even happen in startups in a small team where you’re just very self-motivated. You get what look like huge negatives to the average person that you don’t have weekends, you don’t have vacations, and you don’t have time off, you don’t have work-life balance. But, at the same time, when you are working, it doesn’t feel like work. It’s something that you’re highly motivated to do and that’s the reward. And net-net, I do think this is a one-way door. I think once people experience working on something that they care about with people that they really like in a way they’re self-motivated, they’re unemployable. They can’t go back to a normal job with a manager and a boss and check-ins and nine-to-five and “Show up this day, this week, sit in this desk, commute at this time.” Nivi: I think there’s a hidden meaning in the tweet too, which I’m guessing is intentional. It starts off with “When you truly work for yourself,” which I’m guessing most people are going to take that to mean “You’re your own boss.” But the other way that I read it is that you are working for your self. So your labor is an expression of who and what you are. It’s self-expression. And that’s not an easy thing to figure out.

How I feel after hearing Naval

Nailed it "You don't have time off. You don't have work-life balance. But at the same time when you are working it doesn't feel like work it's something that you're highly motivated to do. And that's the reward..."

Quitting your 9-5 just to work 24/7 is sounds soo wrong but feels so right for some reason

1. Figure out your mission 2. If it can be monetized, so much the better. If not, look harder 3. If it *actually* can’t be monetized, yet it is your mission, who cares about monetization. The bounty accrues to whoever needs it least.

What you get in the future depends on what you do today.

"I always say that an intelligent person gets paid for playing, that is to say: he makes his living doing what he really enjoys doing. There isn’t a hard and fast distinction between work and leisure or work and play. I think one of the great problems of our culture is that we almost assume that a person has to do a dull thing called work in order to earn the right to live." —Alan Watts

the ultimate freedom but damn the mental tax is brutal, no safety net just raw accountability 24/7

True freedom is when your time belongs to you, not just your profits.

Your an inspiration @naval

@ibuild Funny, when i am listening to this at 4 in the morning editing demo videos and writing code, but this got me a smile for sure lol

even though these are probs easier to go viral, you on a long form podcast is best

Entrepreneurship is the goal , no playbook to follow is key to successful life gnad

This is the future of work

This is the breaking free of the modern system of how life is said to be lived.

brilliant

preach. this is exactly it.

🫡

I went through that tight rope. There was a sun and birds chirping on the other side.

Extremely accurate. Once you get a taste of how rewarding running your own show can be, there’s just 0 chance you ever submit back to modern day slavery.

@grok resuma esse audio

I can relate to this lol it makes me not want to sit in an office and have someone boss me around

Working for yourself isn’t easier. The fear gets louder. for once, it matters. You’re building something that’s yours. Not chasing approval. Not faking it. It’s harder—but it’s honest.

Wow

This is unbelievably accurate.

no off switch → the only option: obsession

This is why bear markets are for building

One-way door for sure. For better or worse.

What you have wisely said reminds me of the Gita's call — to act not for self, but for purpose. To work not for reward, but with passion aligned to a higher truth. Only one who lets go of outcome and moves in harmony with the cosmic rhythm finds true freedom. Inspired by Bhagavad Gita 2.47 #Karma

I can't emphasize enough how crucial it is for everyone to hear and understand this now!

I understand this deeply but can’t seem to grasp it in practice like a fish in water. How do I make the genuine shift? Only think I’ve managed to do is stack a little bitcoin but that’s just a super powered place holder for not knowing what to do with myself.

vocational hedonism is the only way

Every one need to hear this