My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Dot Collector Framework
A life approach where you say yes to diverse experiences and opportunities, trusting they will connect meaningfully later
How It Works
Accumulate diverse experiences without knowing their future utility, then connect them when opportunities arise
Components
Say yes to interesting invitations even without clear purpose
Accept speaking opportunities in random countries
Take on unusual experiences like living on $1/day
Meet diverse people in unexpected contexts
Document and reflect on connections between experiences
When to Use
When building a varied skill set, expanding network, or exploring new domains before committing to specialization
When Not to Use
When deep focus is required for execution, when resources are extremely limited, or when expertise depth matters more than breadth
Anti-Patterns to Avoid
Example
“Meeting a German auction theory expert on a train in India leads to starting a $500M domain auction business, or bonding with someone over Uber credit arbitrage at a party leads to 100x investment return”
Related Knowledge
Cheaply access large college audiences when Facebook was campus-only
Access to 30-40k student audiences for $10/day advertising spend
Get large institutions to bend standard rules through strategic communication
Institution agrees to exception that normally wouldn't be granted
sams_list_customer_challenge
Zero-to-One vs One-to-Hundred Operator Framework
Classification of entrepreneurs as either idea generators who start things (0-1) or operators who scale things (1-100)
Good Agent vs Bad Agent Decision Rule
Quickly assess whether a customer service representative can actually help you, and hang up immediately if they can't
Adventurous path choices compound in unexpected ways
Should say yes to unusual opportunities even without clear ROI