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My First Million

My First Million

The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.

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Talent x Project Selection Matrix

Reusability

If you're hardworking and talented, project selection becomes the only variable that matters for outcomes

How It Works

A 10/10 person on a 2/10 opportunity will underperform a 10/10 person on a 10/10 opportunity by 5x

Components

1

Assess your talent/execution level honestly

2

Rate opportunity quality (market size, competition, founder fit)

3

Calculate opportunity cost of time

4

Choose highest-scoring opportunities

5

Avoid low-opportunity projects regardless of personal attachment

When to Use

When evaluating new opportunities, when you have proven execution ability, when considering career pivots

When Not to Use

When you're still developing basic skills, when any project would teach you valuable lessons

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

Choosing projects based on ego or noveltyIgnoring founder-market fitStaying in mediocre opportunities due to sunk cost

Example

A talented developer could build a social media app (crowded, low odds) or a B2B SaaS tool (better odds, clearer path to revenue). The framework suggests choosing the B2B opportunity.