My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
IQ Arbitrage Strategy
Moving talented people from highly competitive, intellectually demanding industries into underoptimized industries where that same talent level creates massive advantage
How It Works
Identifies industries where the average competency level is surprisingly low despite economic opportunity, then applies higher-caliber talent and processes to dominate
Components
Identify your highest-skill domain (finance, engineering, etc.)
Research adjacent industries with poor execution but good unit economics
Analyze why incumbent players are underperforming
Enter with systematically higher standards and processes
Scale the competency gap advantage
When to Use
When you have skills from a demanding field (finance, consulting, tech) and can identify an industry with poor execution despite good economics
When Not to Use
In already optimized industries, when you lack domain expertise, or when the economic opportunity is actually limited
Anti-Patterns to Avoid
Example
“Moving from Wall Street trading desk (PhD-level math) to media industry and becoming 'not the dumbest person' by applying financial rigor to newsletter business models”