#008: Become Known Well, Not Well Known

Many people believe they want to be well-known. They say they want to be rich and famous. They seek status.

Today, we’re breaking down why it is better to be ‘known well’ than to be ‘well known’, and how this aligns with the philosophies of Naval Ravikant, David Perell, and Warren Buffett.

This is inspired by Shaan Puri of the My First Million podcast, who tweeted this back in 2022:

He elaborated in Episode #365 of the My First Million podcast:

“People think you create content like a podcast or a YouTube channel to become well-known. Oh, you want fame? You want to become well-known? Some people want that, and there are some benefits to that… but that’s not my goal. My goal is to be known well.”

“When you’re known well, it means you’ve put your name out there on blast. People know how you think. And so when they see something that they know you’ll love, they immediately think of you and they come share it with you.”

As human beings, we are naturally drawn to status in it’s purest form. How many people follow us, how many people know us at a surface level, fame, renown…

But the status that we deeply seek is often one that comes from being competent, having expertise, and connecting ourselves to a greater purpose.

Here are three other ways to think of this, from other great thinkers:

David Perell: Combine Your Skills, Interests, and Personality Traits

In a wonderful Twitter thread by David Perell, David explores his concept of the Personal Monopoly.

Your Personal Monopoly is at the intersection of your skills, your interests, and your personality traits. And it’s unique to you.

Instead of trying to be the Top 1% of something, find two things that you’re in the Top 10% of. Now you’re in the Top 1% of that combination.

Find the intersection of three things that you’re in the Top 10% of, and you’re in the Top 0.1% of that intersection.

According to David, Personal Monopolies are not found, they are forged. And a great way to identify your personal monopoly is to listen to how other people describe you and your work.

“We are often blind to our own Personal Monopolies. Like fish in water, we don’t know how to explain what we do so we depend on others to define our work for us. Listen to others describe your work. Then, double down on the best summaries.”

– David Perell (Twitter)

You must effectively communicate with the world, as well as listen for feedback on how you’re being perceived.

Naval Ravikant: Seek Specialized Knowledge, Not Status

In Naval’s viral tweet thread, “How to Get Rich (without getting lucky)”, he starts off by instructing you to seek wealth, not money or status.

Later in the thread, he elaborates on how to build wealth.

“Specific knowledge is knowledge that you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else, and replace you.”

– Naval Ravikant (Twitter)

Becoming well known is a status game. Becoming known well means you must develop specific knowledge. Become an expert in something unique so that you are associated with that niche. Here’s another angle:

Warren Buffett – Say No to Almost Everything Else

Warren Buffett once said “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”

What he means is that really successful people are able to focus on something very deeply, to the point of expertise.

The only way to focus on one thing, is to say no to everything else. That’s how you achieve exponential growth.

Once you’ve identified what your personal monopoly could be… once you’ve begun developing your specialized knowledge… you must say no to other things. They are distractions.

This principle applies to wealth building as well.

“Diversification may preserve wealth, but concentration builds wealth.”

– Warren Buffett

Hopefully, approaching this concept from the minds of 4 well-known businessmen and thinkers, is helping you understand the importance of becoming known well, instead of well known.

Wealth Potion exists to help as many people with their financial goals as possible. However, it’s much more important for us to be known well. When you read something, or see something that could help others achieve financial freedom, we hope that you’ll share it with us.

That’s our personal monopoly. That’s our specific knowledge. This is what Wealth Potion will be known well for.

tl;dr Here are 3 easy steps to become known well:

  1. Combine your skills, interests and personality traits
  2. Develop and hone your specific knowledge
  3. Say no to everything else

To your prosperity,
Wealth Potion