Brian Gubernick explores Naval Ravikant's distinction between freedom to (doing whatever you want) and freedom from (internal peace, fewer obligations). He traces his own shift from chasing financial assets and experiences to valuing freedom from anger, sadness, and expectations. The real wealth, he argues, comes from wanting less, not having more.
Chapters
Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick and welcome to the No Days Off podcast where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today I want to talk about yet another quote from the thought leader genius Naval Ravikant. I've talked about Naval in past episodes and I think the guy is absolutely brilliant. His thoughts around wealth and happiness and all sorts of other things in life are second to none. I mean, I really, really find his words valuable and I hope that you do as well. And today I want to talk about a quote of his, some thoughts of his around freedom. It's actually a quote that I shared a few weeks back at our most recent Metrics Masterminds event. And I thought that that would maybe close the chapter on this quote for me, but I was wrong. We've since left that event and it's still top of mind. So let me share it with you. And then I'd like to, to discuss this freedom quote and this approach to freedom with, with our audience today. Here's the quote. When I was younger, I really, really valued freedom. Freedom was one of my core values. Ironically, it still is. It's probably one of my top 3 values, but, but it's now a different definition of freedom. My old definition was freedom to, freedom to do anything I want, freedom to do whatever I feel like whenever I feel like it. Now the freedom I'm looking for is internal freedom. It's freedom from, freedom from reaction. Freedom from feeling angry, freedom from being sad, freedom from being forced to do things. I'm looking for freedom from internally and externally, whereas before I was looking for freedom to. I absolutely love this quote and I'll tell you why. I have been defining wealth, wealth in, in terms of financial wealth, but also wealth in terms of health and relationships, wealthy relationships, wealthy health. I look at these, these subjects, but obviously financial being the biggest one when it comes to wealth. And I've always described it as freedom to, freedom to do what I want to do when I want to do it with whom I want to do it with. And that's a really, I think, solid definition of wealth. But that freedom to, what I've realized is that that freedom to approach, at least as I've reflected on why I've always defined it that way, I think that might be a segment of your life where it's a freedom to approach where you're growing and, and you're growing a business and you're growing a family. You're growing your wealth when you're aspiring to do more, when you're casting, you know, this big vision or setting these big goals. And it's, it's freedom to to achieve. And that to me sounds like a segment of life. And I think that there's probably a time, and maybe I'm nearing it, maybe some of you have already gotten there, not necessarily an age, but maybe it's just maturity or experience or whatever it may be. There's a time where maybe you shift from a freedom to approach to a freedom from, freedom from reaction, freedom from anger, freedom from the opinions of others, freedom from being forced to do things that maybe you don't want to do because you need to do them at the moment. Just freedom from expectations. As I've been thinking around freedom to versus freedom from, what I've also realized is when you're saying freedom to do something, what you're really saying is yes, yes to these things. And when you're saying freedom from doing something, what you're really saying is no, no, I'm not going to do these things. I know this may sound like a very silly analogy, but I got to share it because it's on my mind. You know, I remember a phase of my life where FOMO, fear of missing out, was a real thing. And then I hit a certain point in my life where FOMO was nonexistent and actually JOMO, J-O-M-O, took over. Joy of missing out. And that's a real thing, right? Like today, my desire to participate in a variety of things is a lot lower. And I get a lot of peace in doing what I want to do and having freedom from the obligation that, that, that activity may entail. It's just a really fascinating thing to think around freedom to versus freedom from. And I want today to be a quick hitter because I want you to think around this quote a little bit and figure out how it applies to your world. Are you in a freedom to phase? Have you shifted into a freedom from phase? Maybe you've got a little both, but when you think around true happiness, when you think around true wealth, maybe it's more of a freedom from versus a freedom to. And we're all, I think in our, in business, We are very, very much drawn to this freedom to approach, but maybe we ought to start thinking a little bit more about freedom from. So the focusing question for you today, I think you probably more clearly define what you want freedom to do. You've probably thought a lot around freedom to, but how about freedom from? Where do you aspire to have freedom from? Freedom from what? What is that for you? Once you've identified what you want freedom from, I can't help but ask, what are the action steps to getting there? Maybe you already have it at your fingertips, but you just haven't thought about it this way. And there's a conversation to be had, or there's a model to be built, or there's a step to take that gets you over that hurdle and gets you into that freedom from mentality. Really interesting thought. I appreciate Naval for always making me think, and hopefully he did the same with you today. That's all I have for you today. The No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
