Learn to Sell, Learn to Build

"If you want to be part of a great tech company, then you need to be able to SELL or BUILD. If you don't do either, learn."

"Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable."

Definitions Naval gives

Build (broad)

• Design, development, manufacturing, logistics, procurement, designing and operating a service.
• Industry-specific:
  • Tech: CTO / programmer / software or hardware engineer.
  • Laundry business: person ensuring trains run on time, clothes end up in right place.
• The builder role is the one defined per industry — find it.

Sell (broad)

• Not just B2C selling. Includes marketing, communicating, recruiting, raising money, inspiring people, PR.
• A "broad umbrella category" covering anyone whose job is to move other minds.

Why both

• Either alone gets you employed. Both makes you "unstoppable" because you can found, fund, and ship without dependency.
• Most people are clearly one or the other; deliberately weaken your weaker side.

Sales is improvable

• "Naturals" exist (learned in schoolyard, negotiating with parents, maybe genetic).
• But learnable: read Cialdini, attend a sales seminar, do door-to-door (brutal but fast).

The hidden boundary: input/output coupling

• Building products and selling them have disconnected inputs and outputs — perfect for wealth.
• Support/customer service has coupled inputs and outputs — hours = money. Avoid those if you want wealth.
• The higher the creativity component, the more disconnected (and the better for wealth).

Related

• Specific Knowledge — sales is itself a form of specific knowledge.
• How to Get Rich (Without Getting Lucky) — Canonical Tweetstorm — tweet #11.
• Real Estate Leverage Ladder (Worked Example) — concrete case of the input/output decoupling.

Sources: [Almanack pp32, 63-64]