What is money?

Typically, money is seen as "an exchange of value."

Yat Siu views money as a social system.

The value of money comes from the strength of your social network.

Money holds value because we, as a community, agree that it does.

Today, most money is created by private banks.

When you take out a mortgage, it generates digital money, which contributes to inflation and social debt.

Banks don’t lend money they own; they profit from the interest on the money they lend.

How can we leverage this understanding?

Wealth isn’t built by saving money but through ownership.

It’s about owning assets that go beyond money. We’ll dive into this below.

Ownership.

If you own an asset, it’s truly yours by contract, and that ownership is protected by the government.

But ownership starts with owning yourself.

Having property rights gives you the ability to think like an investor.

If you don’t own something, you can’t grow it, because it’s not truly yours.

If you work somewhere, you need to own part of the business.

The most successful people always have ownership over what matters to them.

Always OWN what you work on.

If you build a social media following, transition it to email ownership.

You’ll never own the algorithm or the decisions made by social media platforms.

Web3 and ownership.

If you store your savings in a bank, they can freeze your account at any moment if they choose to.

If you store your money in a cold wallet, no one can take it away from you, as long as you keep your passwords secure.

Likes and followers are a form of social currency too.

When someone wants you to follow them, they actually want your credibility attached to them to increase their authority.

But it’s an illusion, because you don’t own your followers on social media. They can be taken away at any time, unlike tokens and properties, which you truly own.

How to hire people

Culture × Talent = Success

During the interview, you need to determine if there’s a shared vision, not just talent.

To maintain culture, practice what you preach.

Give your employees some form of stake in the business.

Manage incentives effectively.

When you bring in talent, be upfront about the pay.

If they have a family to support and you can’t offer a high salary, you must be transparent about it.

Funding

Money is abundant. You can raise money in any market.

Early Stage:

Your mission and purpose are crucial for attracting investors.

A prototype is always better than a fancy PowerPoint presentation.

Second, focus on your narrative. What’s the angle from which you're telling your story?

Learn how to convince an investor that you can make them a lot of money.

This is an example of a strong angle to raise funds.

You need to show proof once to start building authority that compounds over time.

Later Stage:

At this point, how much you’ve earned and other quantifiable metrics become more important.

Productivity Hacks - 4 Creator Tools

1. Grammarly → Write mistake-free.

2. QuillBot → Rewrite and enhance any sentence.

3. Hemingway → Make your writing bold and clear.

4. Typefully → Distraction-free editor to write threads.

They’re all free.

No affiliation links.

I’ve been using them for 2+ years, and they’ve saved me hundreds of hours.

5 Deep Quotes from Naval Ravikant

“The tools for learning are abundant. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.”

“Where you live is the single biggest decision you make.”

“Using big words is the mark of a charlatan to explain simple things in a complex way.”

“Status games are multiplayer, zero-sum, hierarchical, judged socially. Get grades, applause, titles now - emptiness later. Natural games are single player, positive-sum, internal, judged by nature/markets. Pay in pain now - get wealth, health, knowledge, peace, family later.”

“The true scarcity is attention, not time.”

I’ll see you next week, warrior.

We’ll keep fighting for greatness,

No setbacks can stop a warrior’s heart.

Best wishes,

Maxi | The Warrior Newsletter