My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
“the key to success is dumb competition”
What It Means
Choose markets where you compete against less intelligent or capable competitors rather than against other highly skilled players
Why It Matters
Like poker table selection, your competitive environment determines success more than absolute skill level
When It's True
In markets with significant execution quality differences, where superior operations create customer value, when switching costs favor incumbents
When It's Risky
In rapidly evolving markets where 'dumb' competitors might be avoiding real structural problems, when network effects favor first movers regardless of quality
How to Apply
Research competitor quality when evaluating markets
Look for industries using outdated methods
Avoid trendy startup categories attracting top talent
Consider boring B2B markets with large customer bases
Example Scenario
“Instead of starting an AI company competing against Stanford PhDs, apply AI to logistics where competitors still use fax machines, creating easier path to market leadership”
Related Knowledge
different is better than better
In competitive markets, being distinctly different creates more advantage than being incrementally better at the same ap
they became a category of one we're the only energy drink that's a shot size
Instead of competing directly, create a new category where you have no competition
Six Stakeholder Business Evaluation Framework
A method for evaluating any company by scoring how well it serves six core stakeholder groups: customers, vendors, employees, investors, regulators, and communities where it operates.
Charlie Munger's Worldly Wisdom Learning Framework
A systematic approach to gaining broad competence by learning the 2-3 most important ideas from each major discipline, creating a toolkit of mental models that can be applied across different domains.
Build profitable businesses by structuring public government data into useful consumer tools
A profitable business generating millions in revenue by making public data accessible and useful to specific customer se
Agency and Permission Mindset
Most barriers to action are psychological rather than structural.