My First Million

When building an audience, one highly valuable, aligned person is worth more than many random people who aren't a good fit for your message or offering.

You can create more value by serving fewer customers at a higher level of quality and price than by serving many customers at a commodity level.

Every person, regardless of their actions, views themselves as acting righteously and justified in their behavior. This includes everyone from saints to serial killers.

When I make mistakes, I attribute them to situational factors. When you make mistakes, I attribute them to your character flaws. This creates unfair double standards in how we judge behavior.

Quickly assess whether a customer service representative can actually help you, and hang up immediately if they can't

Having only one potential buyer gives you essentially zero leverage in negotiations, equivalent to having no buyers at all

Buyers should feel immediate, intense desire for your company rather than slow-building appreciation

A two-phase approach to entrepreneurship where you first focus entirely on financial freedom (making your 'first nut' of a few million dollars) through any viable means, then pivot to working on meaningful, impactful projects once financially secure.

Situation where extremely capable entrepreneurs (10/10 talent) apply themselves to mediocre market opportunities (4/10), resulting in suboptimal returns despite high effort and skill.

The belief that you can become highly knowledgeable in any domain within 6 months of focused learning

When market prices dramatically diverge from operational reality you observe, it signals major opportunity or risk

Content creation can either be an elevator that rapidly advances your business or a treadmill that keeps you busy without progress

The most successful products often give customers permission to express a version of themselves they want to be but can't normally access

A decision-making filter that requires opportunities to meet the 'great' threshold rather than accepting 'good enough' options due to impatience

Finite games are played to win and end, infinite games are played to keep playing. In business, this translates to building sustainable systems versus optimizing for specific outcomes.

In saturated markets, being distinctly different often creates more competitive advantage than being incrementally better at the same approach

Each communication medium has a 'native language' that determines success, and adapting to this native language is essential rather than optional for effective communication

Mental framework for analyzing how primary changes create cascading effects that most people miss, revealing hidden business opportunities

Each year one company becomes the clear breakout that everyone wants to work with - identify and invest in that company three years early

Choose where to live based on specific neighborhood characteristics rather than city-level attributes

Mental framework for identifying temporary competitive advantages before they become widely adopted or regulated away

Once users experience significant productivity gains from new tools, reverting to previous methods becomes psychologically impossible

Two approaches to decision-making: maximizers seek the absolute best option by extensive searching, while satisficers set a 'good enough' threshold and choose the first option that meets it.

Two types of conversational responses: shift responses redirect attention to yourself, while support responses help the other person elaborate and feel heard.

Traffic sources can be categorized as 'rented' (paid advertising where traffic stops when you stop paying) versus 'owned' (SEO, content, community where you build lasting value).

Before creating content for SEO, search your target keyword and honestly assess whether your planned content would be more valuable to users than what currently ranks.

When building multiple companies, your role is to assemble and guide talented teams rather than trying to be the best at every functional skill yourself.

Coming from outside an industry allows you to question assumptions and create solutions that industry insiders accept as unchangeable.

When someone gives you a positive identity label, you unconsciously act in ways that confirm that identity, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of success

When you own a cash-flowing business, ignore daily market price fluctuations and focus on the underlying business fundamentals, like a farmer would ignore random offers for their productive farm.

Social networks function like airports - they control a captive audience that congregates predictably, allowing you to sell them diverse products and services beyond the core offering.

The probability of making money starting your own business with 50-100K is higher than angel investing the same amount

Choosing the right game to play matters more than optimizing performance within the wrong game

The energy and tone you bring to communication determines how your message is received more than the actual content of what you say.

All business problems ultimately trace back to the psychology, fears, and mental blocks of the business owner

People's stated preferences (what they say they want) often differ from revealed preferences (what they actually do), so direct experience is more valuable than stated intentions

For important decisions, bypass analytical pros/cons lists and tune into immediate emotional response to the decision statement

Think about creating recurring revenue systems with teams rather than trading personal time for money

A decision-making approach that consciously separates emotional responses from logical evaluation, especially during high-stakes or stressful situations involving significant capital or risk.

Your capacity for handling stress and complexity is like muscle strength - it grows when progressively overloaded, and people typically operate far below their actual capability

Work expands to fill available time, but when overloaded, only truly important tasks survive - use intentional overload to discover what actually matters

Systematically building relationships with interesting people before you need them, treating networking as collecting valuable assets for future opportunities

When evaluating investments or partnerships, weight a leader's historical execution pattern more heavily than current challenges that appear solvable

Every struggle and setback you push through deposits a quarter in an emotional piggy bank, which you get to break open when you finally succeed - the more struggle, the more joyous the victory

When seeking approval or trying to make something happen, ignore rejections from people who lack authority to grant what you're asking for

Evaluate all time-based decisions through the lens of true hourly value, factoring in post-tax income and total time investment including opportunity costs

Making decisions where the potential upside significantly outweighs the downside risk, even if the probability of success is uncertain

Creating behavior change by eliminating choice and options rather than relying on willpower or motivation

Learn skills and knowledge precisely when you need them for specific situations rather than trying to learn everything upfront

Start any major decision by clearly defining your constraints rather than exploring all possibilities

Visualize both parties sitting on the same side of the table with the problem/obstacle on the other side, rather than adversarial positioning

People don't remember how interactions started or most of what happened - they remember the most intense moment and how it ended

When markets become obsessed with complex, cutting-edge solutions, significant opportunities exist in returning to simple, basic services that everyone overlooks

Most businesses could implement AI solutions if they knew what was possible, but they lack awareness of potential applications rather than ability to execute.

Your emotional state should be premium-priced - it should take significant negative events to affect your mood, not trivial inconveniences

Making decisions based on long-term mathematical expectation rather than individual outcomes

Industry experts often miss breakthrough opportunities because their deep knowledge creates limiting assumptions about what's possible.

The less emotionally attached you are to an outcome, the more likely you are to achieve it, because desperation creates poor decision-making.

A mental framework assuming that initial versions of any product, strategy, or business model will be fundamentally flawed, requiring continuous iteration and improvement rather than trying to perfect things before launch

The most effective advice is often boring and hard to monetize, while exciting advice that sells well is usually counterproductive

If your spouse/partner thinks your business idea sucks, it may actually be a positive signal for entrepreneurial success

Technology/trend adoption follows predictable pattern: Freaks/Geeks → Early Adopter Wannabes → Smart Reasonable People → Late Majority → Laggards

When something works exceptionally well, analyze it as thoroughly as you would analyze failures to understand exactly what made it successful and how to replicate it.

In most organizations, people with decision-making authority lack frontline information, while people with detailed customer knowledge lack authority to act. Bridging this gap is essential for customer experience innovation.

Like Ted Williams mapping his batting average by strike zone, identify your 'sweet spot' opportunities and only swing at those, passing on everything else

Opportunities are either 'windows' (transparent, can see outcome clearly) or 'doors' (opaque, unknown what's behind). Most high-potential opportunities are doors

Reframe every business outcome as either a win (success) or learning opportunity (data for improvement), eliminating the concept of failure

Target 2% improvement every week across all business metrics, trusting compound effects over time even when individual improvements seem insignificant

True financial freedom means money no longer controls your decisions, rather than simply being able to buy anything you want

Instead of competing in existing categories, create a new category where you're the only player

Some successes come from unexpected timing or trend changes rather than deliberate planning, like 'getting hot in your 30s'

The recognition that using AI for personal and emotional support is becoming as normal as using it for work tasks

Distinguishing between startups where you're pushing against resistance versus being pulled forward by market demand

The practice of creating memorable distinctions between days by introducing novel experiences, preventing time from blending into indistinguishable blocks and increasing life satisfaction

When evaluating audience partnerships, trust depth (how much influence you actually have) matters exponentially more than reach breadth (total follower count).

Humans cannot resist investigating when they see other humans gathered around something, making events automatically generate attention and social proof

When you change someone's daily behavior, they talk about it continuously because people discuss what they're currently doing, creating sustained viral marketing

Seek opportunities where you can lose small amounts but win large amounts, or where you have information others lack

The key differentiator between different levels of business success is how comfortable someone is with losing their current status and having to rebuild from a lower position.

In rapidly changing markets, businesses must develop multiple distribution channels rather than depending on a single channel, as any single channel can be disrupted or become ineffective.

Systematically collecting effective phrases, lines, and ideas from various sources to use in your own work later

Content quality filter asking whether you'd personally share this information with a friend via text message

Marketing messages packaged as repetitive musical snippets create stronger memory encoding than visual or spoken messages alone

Collective predictions become more accurate when participants risk their own money rather than just offering opinions

Design products by first identifying the single most impressive AI-powered experience, then building all other features to support and retain users attracted by that magic moment

Identify skills that one generation has naturally but others must learn artificially, then build businesses leveraging that advantage before the gap closes

Customers give zero credit for meeting basic expectations but remember and talk about anything unusual or unexpected you do

Beyond traditional hiring criteria, prioritize team members who are enthusiastic about trying unproven ideas without extensive justification

Major crisis events create temporary market inefficiencies with massive profit potential, but only for those who act within the narrow time window before markets normalize

Two distinct approaches to business execution: 'Beautiful' focuses on craftsmanship and perfection; 'Savage' focuses on volume and speed. Most markets reward savage execution despite cultural bias toward beautiful work.

True financial freedom isn't having a certain amount of money in your bank account - it's when you stop making choices based on money considerations.

When facing uncertainty or major life changes, some people cope by conducting systematic research to gain control and understanding, turning uncertainty into data-driven insights.

The quality standard of any business becomes whatever level of work the leadership allows to pass without correction or feedback

Cowards and heroes feel identical emotions in dangerous situations - the only difference is their behavioral response to those feelings

The story you tell yourself about a situation matters more than the objective reality because your narrative controls your behavior and outcomes

Using visible indicators to signal that all participants are on the same team rather than existing cliques

Successful consumer products must satisfy both selfish desires (narcissism) and moral/social good (altruism) to create strong, sustainable consumer attachment

The amount of personal energy a business opportunity gives you versus drains from you serves as a reliable indicator of opportunity quality and strategic alignment

A learning strategy where you observe what captures the attention of domain experts, using their selective focus as a guide to understand what matters most in their field.

Choose projects based on skills you'll develop, knowledge you'll gain, and relationships you'll build, rather than just potential outcomes, so you benefit even if the project fails

Create content that 10% of your audience loves rather than content that 100% of your audience likes, prioritizing strong positive reactions over broad appeal

A mental model for selecting business and life partners based on complementary emotional temperaments, particularly pairing neurotic/volatile personalities with emotionally stable ones

Framework for calculating addressable market for AI productivity tools by multiplying user base by willingness to pay based on productivity gains

In advice-seeking, people often prefer trusted but potentially less accurate sources over more accurate but untrusted sources

A company's narrative and ability to tell a compelling story about their product is more important than the actual quality or features of the product itself

Prioritize whether a belief is useful to hold over whether it's objectively true, since beliefs influence behavior and outcomes.

The ability to thrive in completely hostile environments with no resources or allies - the ultimate test of leadership capability

People are either pre-fall (haven't been truly humbled by life) or post-fall (have experienced deep adversity that fundamentally changed them)

Look for situations where different parties want different outcomes, creating opportunities to restructure deals so everyone wins

Always evaluate opportunities based on the maximum possible audience size, choosing only ideas that can theoretically appeal to 1+ billion people globally

Sophisticated criminals with otherwise perfect operational security are frequently caught through small, seemingly unrelated errors rather than major investigative breakthroughs.

A negotiation approach that focuses on understanding the underlying needs and constraints of the other party rather than arguing against their stated positions

Setting expectations and requirements high enough that some people self-select out, which actually increases desire among those who remain

A strategic thinking tool that tests whether a proposed strategy is actually differentiated by asking whether any reasonable competitor would choose the opposite approach

Most barriers to action are psychological rather than structural. If something isn't illegal, you can usually just do it without asking permission or waiting for formal approval.

Evaluating businesses based on how effectively they can reinvest profits back into growth versus needing to deploy capital elsewhere

Using other people's experiences and recommendations as an efficient way to make decisions without direct experience

Reframing education departure from 'dropping out' (negative) to 'going pro' (positive) when someone has exceptional skills ready for professional application.

Identifying when you have strong technology or product capabilities but haven't found the right customer segment or use case that will pay sufficiently for the solution.

A decision filter that categorizes experiences by their true value to your wellbeing and happiness

A cognitive model distinguishing between automatic emotional reactions and conscious, chosen responses to events

Elite institutions (universities, pension funds) invest in private equity and hedge funds run by their own alumni, creating self-reinforcing wealth concentration loops.

A business strategy of taking an existing product category and simply executing it with dramatically better design, user experience, and quality

Evaluate all business decisions through the lens of how they impact the four value equation variables: dream outcome, perceived likelihood, time delay, and effort/sacrifice

The idea that picking the right market with good timing matters more than having the best product or execution

The cost of false positives (letting bad things in) is much higher than false negatives (rejecting good things), so be extremely selective

Take the first option that meets your 'good enough' threshold rather than continuing to search for the optimal choice

Viewing your business as a family heirloom to be passed down through generations rather than an asset to be optimized for sale.

Deliberately limiting initial growth to deeply learn fundamentals, enabling exponentially faster growth later when you apply accumulated knowledge.

Viewing your own skills, knowledge, and earning ability as the primary financial safety net rather than relying solely on savings or investments.

Recognizing that good judgment and decision-making ability are more valuable and scarce than raw intelligence or hard work.

Take 15% of your good news and hold it back until the final slides to create a positive lasting impression and additional momentum.

Position your company as 'we're doing what [successful company] did for [known market] but for [your bigger market]' to help investors quickly understand the opportunity size.

When you can diagnose a problem for someone, you gain more authority and sales leverage than if they already know they have the problem

Most people have experiences but learn incorrect lessons from them. Success correlates with ability to extract the right lessons from life experiences.

Focus on small, highly engaged audiences with clear purchase intent rather than large, general audiences

Structure investments where downside is limited but upside is potentially unlimited

A self-imposed time limit for processing and recovering from failures, losses, or setbacks before you must take action to move forward

A deliberate strategy of deeply studying 3-5 people you admire so thoroughly that you can 'turn them on' and channel their perspectives, communication styles, and decision-making approaches

Always hire the candidate with the smallest gap between their current capabilities and role requirements, regardless of whether it's 'hard' or 'soft' skills

Prioritize addressing performance issues based on whether that person/role is currently limiting business growth, not absolute performance level

People who actively search the internet looking for minor violations or reasons to be offended, like meter maids looking for parking violations to ticket

Judge products by what the user actually experiences, not by the underlying technology or buzzwords used to describe them

Evaluate people's true beliefs and priorities by observing their actions rather than listening to their stated positions

Applying stock analysis methodology (buy, sell, hold) to major life decisions by creating formal presentations with pros, cons, and recommendations

Decision-making system where one person presents three acceptable options and the other person chooses, ensuring both parties are satisfied with any outcome

Outsiders often make breakthrough discoveries in fields where experts are too close to notice what's changed or what's possible

Thinking of yourself as the chief executive of your personal life, with the authority and responsibility to make strategic decisions about how you spend your time and energy.

Starting big projects with the smallest possible action to build psychological momentum, rather than waiting until you feel ready to tackle the whole thing.

When evaluating business decisions, identify one core reason for the decision, then catalog all additional ways it could benefit you and ways it could hurt you, proceeding if benefits outweigh risks

Every piece of content you create reveals what your audience wants to buy, based on their questions and engagement patterns around specific products or topics

Mental technique of reframing mundane or difficult tasks as adventures or missions to increase intrinsic motivation and enjoyment

Strategic mindset of immediately looking for ways to turn setbacks, attacks, or disadvantages into competitive advantages or growth opportunities

Experienced entrepreneurs perceive less risk in activities they've done repeatedly, while others see the same activities as highly risky

People underestimate the long-term cost of percentage-based fees because they don't feel the pain of the payment, unlike lump-sum fees

Begin with higher-cost retail purchasing to prove demand quickly, then transition to wholesale pricing once model is validated

A business opportunity that can be entirely explained and justified by a single compelling statistic

Customer interest and conversion probability decay rapidly with time, so optimal conversion happens at the moment of peak interest