My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Emotional Piggy Bank for Difficult Projects
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
Decision Rule
When facing difficult periods, reframe struggles as investments in future emotional payoff rather than just obstacles to endure
How It Works
Human psychology makes victories proportionally more meaningful based on the difficulty overcome to achieve them, creating compounding motivation from struggle itself
Failure Modes
Giving up right before breakthrough when piggy bank is fullest
Not recognizing that struggle itself has value beyond just reaching the goal
Comparing your journey to others who had easier paths
Example Decision
“During Boom's near-death moments, team members stayed motivated by viewing each crisis as adding to the eventual joy of seeing supersonic passenger flights, making success more meaningful than if it had been easy.”
Related Knowledge
The things we admire in other people are actually our own strengths
You can become your heroes because what you admire in them already exists within you - you just need to develop and expr
Bystander Effect in Business Opportunities
A cognitive bias where obviously valuable problems get ignored because everyone assumes someone else must already be working on them, leaving trillion-dollar opportunities hiding in plain sight.
Pasta Extrusion Self-Development Framework
A methodical approach to reshaping yourself into the person capable of achieving an ambitious goal by identifying the specific 'hole' you need to fit through and systematically acquiring the required skills and attributes.
First Principles vs Pattern Matching Decision Framework
A systematic approach to understanding problems by going to root causes and fundamental physics rather than relying on rules of thumb, analogies, or conventional wisdom.
Build deep technical credibility from scratch in a complex field
Ability to have detailed technical conversations with experts, catch BS from supposed experts, and make informed technic
Make strategic decisions by working backwards from likely future scenarios
Clear conviction about which path to pursue based on which future you'd be proudest to have contributed to