Eric Jorgenson

On Building Wealth

• Seek wealth, not money or status.
  • Wealth = assets that earn while you sleep
  • Money = medium of exchange
  • Status = zero-sum, positional game
• Play long-term games with long-term people
• #1 rule to building wealth is to own equity in a company.
• Specific knowledge is the real leverage
  • Cannot be taught easily
  • Built through genuine curiosity + obsession
• Leverage multiplies effort
  • Capital, code, media, labor
  • Modern leverage (code & media) has near-zero marginal cost
• Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow. When today is complete, in and of itself, you’re retired.
• The way to get out of the competition trap is to be authentic, to find the thing you know how to do better than anybody.
• If you can build and sell, you are unstoppable.
• Accountability is the best leverage: taking risks under your own name.

On Building Judgement

• Clear thinking > raw IQ
• People respond to incentives, not advice or intentions
• Read foundational knowledge including math, logic, probability, statistics, and microeconomics.
• Persistence matters, but knowing when to stop is judgment.
• The best returns come from asymmetric bets: limited downside, massive upside.
• It’s only after you’re bored you have the great ideas. It’s never going to be when you’re stressed, or busy, running around or rushed. Make the time.
• “I don’t want to read everything. I just want to read the 100 great books over and over again.”
• To think clearly, understand the basics. If you’re memorizing advanced concepts without being able to re-derive them as needed, you’re lost.