Why you should productize yourself?

After I left my last job, I took a break for a few months. During this break, I stumbled upon writings by @naval - a popular entrepreneur, investor, and philosopher. One of his tiny tweets has completely changed the way I looked at wealth creation.

Productize yourself - @naval

This 2-word sentence actually packs a lot of wisdom.

1. What do you mean by "productize"?

To understand this, we first need to understand what a product does. At the core, a product creates value for its users. It can be scaled to many users. A product can help you make a lot of money. But more importantly, it can make money for you even when you are sleeping. And this phenomenon is called wealth.

e.g. it may take a year for a writer to write a book. But if it's a great one, he/she will continue to earn from it for the next few years even when they are not actively "writing" it.

The "productize" part in the above quote refers to you trying to create a product out of yourself. It refers to you figuring out how to create value for others and then scaling it so that you can continue to create more value even when you are probably doing something else.

2. What do you mean by "yourself"?

There will always be some sort of competition, either with existing products or future ones. So how do you distinguish your product from others? How do you grow a new product in a competitive space? How do you maintain your position? - By making the product authentic.

The "yourself" part of the quote refers to creating products that are an embodiment of your own ideas, beliefs, and values at the core. So they will be truly unique and authentic. You will be able to work hard on them and truly enjoy the journey as well.

When these 2 things are put together, it means - you must find out what your unique passion is and work hard to make it into a product. If your product is great, society will reward you handsomely and you can be wealthy in the true sense.