My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Too Hard Pile Decision Making
A decision-making framework where you categorize opportunities into 'obviously good', 'obviously bad', and 'too hard to judge' - then only act on the obviously good ones.
How It Works
Reduces cognitive load and risk by avoiding the time-consuming middle ground where most mistakes happen. Recognizes that missing a good opportunity costs less than choosing a bad one.
Components
Set strict criteria for 'obviously good'
Quickly identify 'obviously bad' options
Put everything else in 'too hard pile'
Only pursue obviously good options
Ignore too hard pile completely
When to Use
When facing many options with limited time/resources, when downside risk is high, when opportunity cost of analysis is significant.
When Not to Use
For unique one-time decisions, when you have unlimited resources to analyze, in markets where speed isn't critical.
Anti-Patterns to Avoid
Example
“At a networking event with 100 people, quickly identify 5 obviously great contacts and 5 obviously bad ones, then ignore the other 90 rather than trying to figure them all out.”