My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
“focusing on making money will cause you to make less money”
What It Means
When people perceive you as primarily motivated by money extraction, they avoid transacting with you, reducing your actual income potential
Why It Matters
Reveals counterintuitive relationship between motivation and outcomes - indirect approaches often work better than direct ones
When It's True
In relationship-based businesses, consultative sales, long-term customer relationships, reputation-dependent markets
When It's Risky
In purely transactional markets, when dealing with sophisticated buyers who separate personal motivation from value delivery, in auction-like situations
How to Apply
Lead with customer problem-solving rather than revenue goals
Build expertise in creating value before monetizing
Use consultative sales approaches that diagnose before proposing
Market based on outcomes rather than profit margins
Example Scenario
“Salesperson who focuses on understanding customer problems and recommending appropriate solutions (even if lower priced) builds trust and gets more referrals than someone obviously trying to maximize commission”
Related Knowledge
billionaire is a state of mind
The label 'billionaire' is more about perception and lifestyle than actual liquid wealth
Zero to something is always more life-changing
The psychological and practical impact of first wealth creation far exceeds subsequent wealth increases
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.