University doesn’t teach you how to make money. It teaches you how to become a useful tool for others to make money.
You are trained to be useful labor, ready to fit into someone else’s system.
But how to actually make money? That is never taught.
Some people say, “If I study hard and get a good job after graduation, I can make money.” But that’s just earning money, not making money.
What’s the difference?
Earning money means trading your time and labor for money. Once you stop working, the money stops too.
Making money means using leverage—such as labor, capital, media, or code (as Naval Ravikant talks about). None of this is taught in university.
Most graduates only pick up some skills for earning money, not for making money. In the era of artificial intelligence, even the skills for earning money can be easily replaced by AI.
So how do you actually make money?
It is about mastering assets. For example, owning shares of great technology companies means your money works for you, not the other way around. It is about building things that generate income on their own, without you having to constantly trade your time and labor.
This could be creating a product—something digital, like an app or an online course, or content like a YouTube channel. Once you have built these, you can sell them again and again. Even while you are sleeping, they can still bring in money.
When you start using these kinds of leverage, you can reach more people and create more value, far beyond what you could do with your own labor alone.
Making money means letting assets and leverage work for you, instead of always working for money. This is the real path to financial freedom, but none of this is taught in university.
If you want to break free from the cycle of earning money with your labor, start learning how to build assets and use leverage. That is how you make money work for you—and that is where real financial independence begins.