My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Most Silicon Valley entrepreneurs fail because their ego prevents them from building what customers actually want versus what they think customers should want
The Reasoning
Chinese companies succeed by focusing purely on engagement metrics and user demand without caring about prestige or brand perception, while US companies optimize for what looks good to peers
What Needs to Be True
- Consumer preferences differ from entrepreneur preferences
- Ego significantly impacts product decisions
- Market success requires following demand over vision
- Prestige and success are often inversely correlated
Counterargument
Vision and taste are crucial for breakthrough products, following market demand leads to commodity products, brand prestige drives premium pricing, ego drives necessary risk-taking
What Would Change This View
Seeing more examples of vision-driven companies beating market-driven ones, evidence that prestige translates to superior unit economics, data showing ego correlates with innovation
Implications for Builders
Test low-prestige but high-engagement products
Measure engagement over brand perception
Study successful Chinese apps for mechanics
Be willing to build 'embarrassing' products that work
Example Application
“Instead of building sophisticated AI tools for professionals, create simple but addictive AI-powered games that people actually use daily”