My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Local Maxima vs Global Maxima Business Philosophy
A business philosophy that most plateaus or stuck points are temporary saddle points rather than true limits, because businesses have multiple dimensions (product, team, market, pricing) that create many paths forward.
How It Works
Unlike climbing a simple hill where you can get trapped on a small peak, business has many moving parts that create multiple directions to explore. When growth stalls, there's almost always another dimension to optimize.
Components
Identify which dimension of business is constraining growth
Map out adjacent dimensions you could optimize (team, product, market, pricing, strategy)
Test small experiments in new dimensions
Recognize that most stuck points are saddle points with upward paths
Avoid assuming current plateau is the maximum possible
When to Use
When your business growth has plateaued or you feel stuck at a certain level and need perspective on potential paths forward.
When Not to Use
When facing fundamental market destruction, regulatory shutdown, or core product obsolescence where no optimization can help.
Anti-Patterns to Avoid
Example
“A SaaS company hits $1M ARR and growth stalls. Instead of assuming that's their limit, they explore new dimensions: enterprise sales, new verticals, partnership channels, or premium tiers - finding multiple paths to $10M ARR.”