Naval uses the five chimps theory to program his social inputs. He turns zoology into behavioral mathematics.
Your five closest people become your emotional leverage. Naval takes this literally. “Choose your five chimps carefully.” They amplify everything you become.
He treats these relationships like equity positions. “You have very little room in your life long-term for real relationships.” Every coffee meeting risks diluting your social ownership. Every casual dinner competes with compounding returns from deeper bonds.
This explains his decision-making ruthlessness. Being discriminating creates social physics: scarcity generates attraction. His selectivity becomes its own incentive system.
“If you can’t see yourself working with somebody for life, don’t work with them for a day.”
Naval searches for people who accelerate his unique development. “When you find things and people that you love, you go all-in on them.” The right chimps become wealth multipliers through better opportunities, thinking, and accountability loops.
Your chimps shape your internal scorecard. They influence what you want and don’t want. This requires conscious awareness - most people let their social environment choose them through unconscious evolution.
Naval’s insight: strategic relationship design determines your happiness ceiling. Choose people who choose truth over comfort.