My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Maintain freedom to work on what you love while building a successful business
Entrepreneurs and creators who want to avoid being trapped by success into working on things they don't enjoy
Career-long strategyWhat Success Looks Like
Ability to work exclusively on projects you're passionate about, declining lucrative distractions, and having money follow from doing what you love rather than chasing money directly.
Steps to Execute
Identify what work activities you genuinely love doing
Build initial success around those core activities
As success grows, actively resist opportunities that distract from core work
Say no to higher money and status if it compromises freedom
Reinvest gains into more freedom rather than lifestyle inflation
Checklist
Inputs Needed
- Clear understanding of what work you love
- Financial discipline to avoid lifestyle inflation
- Ability to say no to attractive distractions
Outputs
- Sustained high performance in chosen field
- Compound returns from focused expertise
- Higher life satisfaction from alignment
Example
“Podcast host turning down multiple lucrative speaking engagements and consulting offers to focus entirely on creating better episodes, resulting in higher long-term revenue and satisfaction.”
Related Knowledge
Anti-Business Billionaire Framework
A framework identifying five core traits of entrepreneurs who build massive companies by being contrarian to typical business advice: high disagreeableness, extreme self-confidence, product obsession, total control retention, and refusal to sell at any price.
Edisonian Principle of Design
A product development approach focused on rapid experimentation, immediate feedback, and constant iteration rather than master planning.
delegation_trap
Family Heirloom Business Model
Viewing your business as a family heirloom to be passed down through generations rather than an asset to be optimized for sale.
Go Slow Now to Go Fast Later
Deliberately limiting initial growth to deeply learn fundamentals, enabling exponentially faster growth later when you apply accumulated knowledge.
Most products in the world are mediocre and this mediocrity offends truly great entrepreneurs
Product quality obsession isn't just about customer satisfaction but about personal values and standards.