My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
“if it's hard, it's probably wrong”
What It Means
Persistent difficulty in business execution often signals fundamental misalignment with market needs or personal capabilities
Why It Matters
Helps entrepreneurs distinguish between normal challenges and wrong direction, potentially saving years of wasted effort
When It's True
When difficulty comes from fighting against market forces, poor product-market fit, or misaligned timing
When It's Risky
During normal startup challenges that require persistence, or when giving up too early on breakthrough innovations
How to Apply
Monitor your energy levels as signal of opportunity quality
Distinguish between hard work and wrong direction
Use as decision criteria for pivoting or persisting
Example Scenario
“After 3 years of jewelry retail feeling like 'pushing water uphill,' Eric recognized persistent difficulty as signal to stop rather than problem to solve through more effort.”
Related Knowledge
If building your business feels consistently hard and draining, you're probably pursuing the wrong o
Right opportunities create energy rather than drain it.
Cultural Shift Detection Framework
A systematic approach to finding business opportunities by identifying cultural shifts or macro trends that have impacte
Creative Tension Framework
A method for creating compelling products by bringing together two disparate or opposing concepts to generate creative t
One Change Rule
A principle that limits innovation to changing only one major element of an existing product or service to maximize prob
Familiar-Novel Intersection Framework
A framework for positioning products at the optimal intersection between familiar (easy to understand) and novel (differ
Generate actionable product ideas through international travel and observation
Return from trip with 2-3 validated product concepts that can be immediately prototyped and tested with retailers/consum