Indian-origin American entrepreneur and investor Naval Ravikant believes success doesn’t come from grinding endlessly or trying to be the smartest person in the room. Instead, he says the real edge lies in one powerful idea, ‘productise yourself.’
While Ravikant was speaking on a podcast hosted by YouTuber Chris Williamson, the AngelList founder explained that young professionals dramatically increase their chances of success when they play to their natural strengths, the things that feel like play to them, but look like work to others. “No one is going to be better at being you than you,” Ravikant said.
Find work that feels like play
Ravikant’s advice is simple but counter-intuitive. Instead of chasing what looks prestigious or profitable, people should double down on what they genuinely enjoy doing. “Find what feels like play to you but looks like work to others. So you’re going to out-compete them because you’re doing it effortlessly,” he said.
He further added, “You’re doing it for fun. They are doing it for work. To you, it’s art, it’s beauty, it’s joy, it’s fulfilling.” When work aligns with enjoyment, effort stops feeling forced and competition naturally drops off.
Why being ‘you’ beats being skilled
To drive the point home, Ravikant used his podcast host as an example. Turning to Chris Williamson, he said that Williamson’s success was no accident. “You must really enjoy podcasting. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be so good at it,” he said. Ravikant added that if Williamson had tried to follow a more conventional success path, the outcome would have been very different.
“If you had decided that the right way to get ahead in life was to write books, nobody would have heard of you. Chris Williamson’s book would have been a complete flop, that’s not who you are. You’re a podcaster.”
The lesson, Ravikant said, is clear, the more natural something is to you, the less competition you face. “If I had to summarise how to be successful in life in two words, I would just say, productise yourself.”
What does ‘productising yourself’ really mean?
Ravikant has explained this idea in depth earlier, including in another podcast in 2019. According to him, productising yourself is about combining three things, specific knowledge, leverage, and individuality. “Productise has specific knowledge and leverage. Yourself has uniqueness and accountability. Yourself also has specific knowledge,” he said.
In simple terms, it means taking who you are, your skills, personality, interests, and perspective, and scaling it like a product using tools such as technology, capital, media, or code. “If you’re looking long-term, ask yourself, Is this authentic to me? Is it really myself that I’m projecting? And am I scaling it?”
Ravikant believes that once people align work with their identity, effort stops being draining. “What is this podcast? This is a podcast called Naval. I’m literally productising myself with a podcast,” he said. The goal, he explained, is not just to work harder but to apply leverage.
“You want to figure out what you’re uniquely good at — or what you uniquely are — and apply as much leverage as possible.” At that point, money becomes a byproduct, not the goal.
He added, “Making money isn’t even something you do. It’s not a skill. It’s who you are, stamped out a million times.”