Naval treats building as the fundamental skill of wealth creation. “Build, sell, write, create, invest, and own”. Building comes first because it compounds over decades: each thing you build teaches you to build the next thing better. It separates makers from takers in the eternal zero-sum status game by creating new value rather than redistributing existing wealth. Building starts with personal wanting: you must want the thing to exist before you can make it real.
Building requires deep specific knowledge that cannot be taught in schools. “In every industry, there is a definition of the builder”. In tech it’s the programmer writing code, the engineer solving problems. In other industries it’s whoever makes the complex systems actually work. Building demands exceptional judgment across multiple variables: design, development, manufacturing, logistics. Each decision requires iterating between what’s possible and what’s optimal.
Naval believes builders have ultimate leverage because building skills compound exponentially. “I’d rather teach an engineer marketing than a marketer engineering”. Sellers can learn to communicate products, but builders understand the physics of how things actually work. This creates asymmetric advantages and builds lasting professional reputation that transcends any single company.
The Silicon Valley model pairs builders with sellers in perfect game theory symbiosis. “Generally, you will see this pattern repeated over and over. There’s a builder and there’s a seller”. Jobs and Wozniak. Gates and Allen. This creates aligned incentives: both need the other to succeed. The rare founder who masters both building and selling achieves complete economic freedom.
Naval’s vision extends building beyond individual craftsmanship to civilizational evolution. “If everybody had the knowledge of a good software engineer and a good hardware engineer”, we would “build robots, machines, software and hardware to do everything”. Universal building knowledge becomes mathematical in its precision: everyone can write code, design systems, manufacture solutions. This creates infinite abundance through distributed construction capability.
Building connects to Naval’s deepest psychology around mortality and meaning. “I was trying to build lasting things, create things, make money, build businesses” when driven by the desire for immortality. Building becomes therapy for existential anxiety: constructing something that outlasts the self. Only through meditation did he realize this compulsion, shifting from building for ego to building for genuine happiness.
The building mentality separates principals from agents by creating natural ownership thinking. Builders think like owners because they understand systems from first principles. When something breaks, they know exactly why. This creates inevitable accountability and builds unshakeable reputation. Great builders eventually demand equity rather than salary because they know their true value creation.
Naval sees building as pure creative expression transcending economic necessity. “If anyone is still working at that point, they’re working as a form of expressing their creativity. They’re working because it’s in them to contribute, and to build and design things”. Building becomes joyful play when automation provides complete freedom from survival concerns. Like reading great books for pleasure rather than profit, building becomes its own reward when material needs dissolve.