My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
The '$70k happiness threshold' research is completely wrong - money continues to improve life well beyond that level through service purchasing
The Reasoning
Money allows you to eliminate tasks you hate (cleaning, administrative work) and optimize for tasks you enjoy, creating significant quality of life improvements at much higher income levels
What Needs to Be True
- People have tasks they genuinely dislike doing
- Service providers can effectively handle these tasks
- Time freed up gets used for more enjoyable activities
- Services scale reasonably with income levels
Counterargument
Beyond basic needs, additional income may have diminishing returns on core happiness measures
What Would Change This View
Longitudinal studies showing no life satisfaction improvement from service purchasing at higher income levels
Implications for Builders
Service businesses targeting higher-income individuals are valuable
Products that save time rather than money may command premium pricing
Focus on solving annoying tasks rather than just optimizing existing processes
Example Application
“Build premium services targeting successful professionals who value time over money - house cleaning, meal prep, administrative assistance.”
Related Knowledge
Content-First Market Validation
Using content creation to validate demand for products before manufacturing or sourcing them, by showcasing products in content and measuring audience response.
Media as Top-of-Funnel Commerce Model
Building a media business (blog, YouTube, social) primarily to create audience and trust, then monetizing through higher-margin product sales rather than traditional advertising.
Negative Customer Acquisition Cost Model
A business model where your marketing activities (content creation) generate direct revenue while simultaneously acquiring customers, resulting in negative acquisition costs.
Transform a personal hobby into a scalable business
A sustainable business generating significant revenue from serving others in your hobby niche, with potential for acquis
Launch a physical product using existing content audience
Product sells out initial inventory within days/weeks and creates sustainable revenue stream from existing audience
Multiple Ways to Win Decision Framework
When evaluating business decisions, identify one core reason for the decision, then catalog all additional ways it could