The internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers.
Most people haven’t figured this out yet.
-Naval Ravikant
I opened a brick-and-mortar shop because the suppliers in my industry wouldn't sell to a business that was "just a website." The unofficial rule was that you had to have a real store. I played the game as they dictated and found a way to open up a store and did quite well from it too. But eventually, I burnt out, closed the physical store, went online-only, and focused mostly on my brand. Coincidentally, this is when I started making serious money; it was all thanks to the internet.
Once upon a time, you had to have a physical store for people to walk into and buy stuff. Now you only have to have a website and a garage full of stock.
Where you used to have to travel the globe competing in competitions and hosting demonstrations to promote your products, you can now film yourself using them and post it on YouTube.
Magazines were once the way influential figures made their way into the everyday lives of the impressionable youth, but now we have Instagram (and the rest).
Thanks to the internet, I was able to make a good living doing what I loved: designing scooter parts, riding them, filming it, and posting it on the internet. Closing the physical store reduced my expenses significantly. It also freed up the bulk of my time that I was previously spending manning the store. With the extra funds and free time, I doubled down on the things I loved most about my business and relied purely on the internet for leverage, and it worked. Four years later, I look back at that specific transition as one of the most pivotal moments in my entrepreneurial journey. It changed the way I viewed how business can be done, and the focused efforts propelled my business through a growth stage that created life-changing income for me.
Navalism is best read in the following order:
Seek Wealth, Ignore Status Games, Don't Sell Time, Give At Scale, Long Term Games, Internet Advantage, Compound Interest .. to be continued.