Compared to our parents, our generation has all the tools to be successful and wealthy.

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world”— Archimedes

To be successful, forget chasing after money, status or a prestigious role.

What should you focus on instead?

Building permissionless leverage.

Don’t get me wrong, capital and labor are forms of leverage too. But they are old-school forms of leverage. They require you to have large amounts of money or have lots of people work for you.

Old school forms of leverage were all the rage in the 20th century. They made people fabulously wealthy. Warren Buffett made his fortune by leveraging large amounts of capital to invest in businesses.

Your parents are most familiar with capital and labor as a form of leverage.

This is why when you get a promotion your parents will ask you:

• How much are you getting paid?

• How many people are reporting to you?

Your parents lived in an economic reality that was hierarchical and fixed.

Many probably worked for one organization their entire careers.

They didn’t have the ability to monetize their passions. There were many gatekeepers and few opportunities to work for themselves. The platform economy we take for granted today didn’t exist for them.

Your parent’s best bet was biting their tongue, laugh at a lot of crappy jokes and try to climb the greasy ladder to the top. And that’s the problem with capital and labor as a form of leverage:

They require permission.

With capital as leverage, you either need to accumulate capital or someone to give you lots of money. You are unlikely to have access to this form of leverage when you’re young.

Labor leverage means you have to actively manage lots of people, which is difficult. People are emotional and unpredictable. You always run the risk of people rebelling or overthrowing you.

This reality still exists, but you don’t have to play this game.

What Should You Do Instead?

Short answer: stop chasing labor and capital as a form of leverage.

You should still invest your money and you will still need to work with people. But the optimal amount of labor and capital leverage quickly reaches a point of diminishing returns.

Longer answer: start building permissionless leverage.

You now live in an age of infinite leverage. The internet has given everyone the means to create their own leverage, without the permission of any gatekeeper or authority.

The smart people have already figured this out.

The spread of the COVID-19 virus was not the only thing that went viral in 2020. Many people were forced into making money on the internet and some never looked back.

I’ve seen former Michelin Chefs and Starbucks Baristas make their own full-time job off creating Tik Tok videos. They didn’t have to ask any TV executive for permission to do so.

Here’s How You Can Build Permissionless Leverage in the 21st Century:

1. Learn To Code

Once a prominent Twitter insult, learning to code is great advice for young people wanting to learn new skills.

The robot revolution is already here. You can have millions of robots work for you. You just need to know how to communicate and direct them.

The robot army is already here — code lets you tell them what to do — Naval Ravikant

As workers, robots trump humans on most rules-based, repetitive and manual tasks. They learn quickly and don’t need to eat or sleep. They won’t ever complain to HR about stubbing a toe.

Through code, you’ve got a 24/7 workhorse eager to fulfill your every command. You can learn the most basic programming for free or through Udemy courses.

Learning to code will be as fundamental as learning to type on a keyboard or interface productivity with a computer. Each new technology requires new skills. Don’t be left behind.

2. Create Your Community

Your network is your net worth. The old adage: “It’s not what you know but who you know” is becoming more important than ever before.

Most skills can be learned or automated away. Being highly specialized no longer holds the same weight as it did previously and rigid hierarchies will become less critical to a healthy organization.

Building a community of collaborators and peers provides an environment where everyone can provide each other value and create a virtuous circle of success.

You are creating a network effect for your own success that is built on collaboration and trust. Like most things in life, the value of your network operates on compound interest.

The earlier you start, the more you will be to exploit the accumulated interest. Find your tribe and invest in your community.

3. Media

Media is becoming more democratized and available for more young people to leverage.

I’ve always said that everyone should have a blog and podcast where they talk about a niche topic they’re passionate about.

Blogs and podcasts are products that have no marginal cost of replication. Whether one person or a million people listen to your podcast, your cost remains fixed at creation.

Simply by producing lots of content, you can become known as a thought leader and expert in your field. And have an audience that trusts and values your opinion.

The immediate pushback I get is: “there are already so many blogs and podcasts out there, how will I stand out?”

People forget the power of context.

There are hundreds of middle-aged white men talking about personal finance on the internet. If I were to go into this topic, I would focus on serving the growing young Asian-Australian community interested in money.

You can escape the competition through authenticity.

What are you uniquely qualified to talk about? Which segment of the population is underserved? How can you capture some of the value you create?

Once you can answer this your strategy is to give, give, give, give, give, and then take.

4. Build Your Brand

Even if you’ve never created content before, you’ve got a brand online.

Congrats.

The choice is whether you’ve got an active brand that promotes what you value or a passive brand that shoots out ambiguous signals.

Neglecting your brand is hurting your opportunities.

Ever since I started posting regularly on LinkedIn, I’ve received more inbound opportunities than I know what to do with. Paid speaking opportunities, freelance gigs, and exciting collaborations.

I have to say no to 99% of these offers but every so often I get an opportunity that aligns with my brand and values. Regularly creating and posting content allows people to understand what you stand for.

Through your brand, you are creating accountability with your name. You take on risk in doing so but you are also building equity.

Eponymously named brands are where all the new fortunes are being made. Just look at Joe Rogan’s $100million Spotify deal or Youtubers like PewDiePie who is bigger than the local news.

Summary:

Permissionless leverage is easy to understand but hard to implement.

Here are a few principles:

• You have to be willing to fail publicly while you build your leverage. The first year of creating will feel like you are shouting into the abyss. Stick with it. Your audience will find you.

• Building leverage takes time, consistency, and patience. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your leverage.

• You will be mocked and misunderstood. If you’re unwilling to be mocked, you are giving up your position as a leader. Great ideas that changed society were mocked relentlessly before they became mainstream.

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