My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Family business proximity creates competitive advantage
Evidence
Muscle Milk family lived in same cul-de-sac and built $450M business with strong relationships maintained
Implication
Physical and emotional proximity enables faster communication, aligned incentives, and long-term thinking
Counter Belief
Family involvement creates conflicts of interest and prevents objective business decisions
Example Application
Structure business partnerships with people you want lifelong relationships with, prioritizing trust over pure competence
Related Knowledge
Harsh Grader Heuristic
The cost of false positives (letting bad things in) is much higher than false negatives (rejecting good things), so be e
First Acceptable Option Rule
Take the first option that meets your 'good enough' threshold rather than continuing to search for the optimal choice
Timeline Forcing Analysis
A method of analyzing successful companies by drawing out year-by-year timelines to reveal the 'forgotten grinding years' between start and breakthrough.
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.
Small Batch Iteration Advantage
A competitive advantage gained by testing products in much smaller batches than competitors, enabling faster feedback loops and more iterations.
Build a multi-generational family business where family members work together and live in proximity
Family members living in same neighborhood, all working in family business, kids playing together, successful exit while