Knowledge Marketplace
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.

Back to Mental Models

Win or Learn, Never Lose

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

Decision Rule

When facing setbacks, immediately ask 'what can we learn from this?' instead of dwelling on failure or blame

How It Works

Removes emotional weight from failures, maintains forward momentum, and extracts maximum value from every experience by focusing on actionable insights

Failure Modes

Using learning as excuse for poor execution

Not actually extracting specific lessons from setbacks

Continuing failed approaches under guise of 'learning'

Avoiding accountability by labeling everything as learning

Example Decision

After $30M Walmart order gets cancelled to $300K, focus on learning about buyer relationships and contract terms rather than dwelling on the lost revenue, leading to better future partnerships