Notes - Million Dollar Weekend

January 6, 2025

Chapter 1: Just Fu**ing Start

This chapter emphasizes the importance of overcoming the fear of starting and taking immediate action in entrepreneurship. It asserts that ordinary people can launch profitable businesses without being rich, brilliant, or super experienced. The author, Noah Kagan, shares his personal experience of being fired from Facebook as its 30th employee at age 24, a moment that felt like a deep shame but ultimately liberated him to pursue entrepreneurship his own way and experiment. This experience led him to understand that a willingness to run small experiments is the connection between numerous failures and eventual success, calling this Creator’s Courage.

The Million Dollar Weekend Process

The author developed the Million Dollar Weekend (MDW) process after starting eight million-dollar businesses himself, including Kickflip, Gambit, KingSumo, SendFox, Sumo, TidyCal, Monthly1K, and AppSumo. This process consists of three core steps:

Find a problem people are having that you can solve.
Craft an irresistible solution whose potential is backed by simple market research.
Spend NO MONEY to quickly validate the idea by preselling it before building it.

Early adopters of this process successfully launched profitable side hustles or businesses, such as Michael Osborn (an $83,000-a-month consulting business), Jennifer Jones (a $20,000-a-year cookie business), and Daniel Reifenberger (a $250,000-a-year tech tutoring business).

Two Core Fears

Despite the process working, many "wantrepreneurs" struggle to start. The author discovered two main fears holding people back:

Fear of Starting: The belief that entrepreneurship is a huge risk leads to endless preparation and planning, which only breeds more doubt and fear. The best way to learn is by getting started through small, repeated experiments.
Fear of Asking: The fear of rejection prevents people from selling their product or asking for help. Reframing rejection as desirable makes asking a powerful skill.

The NOW, Not How Habit

The author introduces the NOW, Not How Habit as a life-changing approach to overcome overthinking. Instead of learning or researching first, super-successful people take action first, get real feedback, and learn from that, which is "a million times more valuable than any book or course. And quicker!". The advice is to prioritize taking action NOW and not worry about the HOW. As an example, the author recalls pushing an ad agency to complete setup tasks "right now" instead of waiting for an email recap, saving 24 hours.

The Freedom Number

To provide early motivation, the author suggests choosing a Freedom Number, a simple monthly revenue goal that covers minimum monthly expenses. For the author, it was $3,000, covering housing, food, travel, savings, and investment, allowing him to live freely. This goal is effective because it's doable, concrete, and urgent, focusing the mind on income-generating activities rather than abstract "million-dollar dreams".

Challenges

The Dollar Challenge: Ask someone you know for a $1 investment in your future business to experience the power of starting and asking. The provided script encourages immediate action despite discomfort.
NOW, Not How Challenge: Ask one person you respect for a business idea. This exercise demonstrates the power of acting in the moment and building momentum.
Choosing your Freedom Number: Write down a short-term monthly revenue goal that doesn't scare you, to align your actions with your personal definition of success.

Chapter 2: The Unlimited Upside of Asking

This chapter delves into the importance of asking and embracing rejection as a core entrepreneurial skill. The author recounts his childhood experience watching his immigrant father sell copiers, facing "countless rejections" daily but inevitably finding success. His father taught him to "Love rejections! Collect them like treasure! Set rejection goals," aiming for a hundred rejections each week to find the few "yeses" within them. This reframed rejection as desirable and unlimited upside.

Develop Your Ask Muscle

The author emphasizes that intentionally developing your Ask muscle is a REQUIREMENT for entrepreneurial success. He admits to feeling scared and sad when facing rejection but uses strategies like reminding himself of mortality and setting Rejection Goals (e.g., aiming for 25 rejections) to turn it into a game and associate hard things with growth. He cites Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, whose early conditioning to embrace failure helped her persist through "seven years of almost daily humiliation selling fax machines" and countless "noes" to become a billionaire. The key is to desensitize yourself to the pain by repeatedly exposing yourself to it.

Always Be Asking

Asking is fundamental for growth, whether for a new job, a raise, sales, or even better treatment at home.

PRO TIP: Be persistent. Most "noes" are actually "not now." Studies show that a follow-up ask is TWICE as likely to get a yes.
PRO TIP: Selling is helping. If you believe your product improves lives, sales become an act of education and a "communal gift," making asking easier.

The author gives an example from his college days with HFG Consulting, where they created a student discount card. Despite conventional wisdom saying it wouldn't work, he and his intern immediately went business to business, asking shopkeepers to participate by highlighting how it would help them get more customers for free. This resulted in signing up 20 businesses and generating $50,000 within a year.

Challenge

The Coffee Challenge: Go to any coffee shop or place in person, make a simple purchase, and ask for 10 percent off. The goal is to feel uncomfortable, practice asking, and overcome the fear of rejection. This exercise has been transformative for thousands of people.

Chapter 3: Finding Million-Dollar Ideas

This chapter advocates for a Customer First Approach to generating business ideas, rather than a "Founder First" mentality. The author shares his costly mistake with BetArcade, a fantasy sports betting site that failed after $100,000 was spent because "NO ONE CAME". This led to the realization that it's "deadly to build a business without first verifying that there are paying customers".

Customers Want Solutions, Not Ideas

Customers don’t care about your ideas; they care about whether you can solve their problems. You should not build an idea if you're not 100% certain customers will pay for it. The Customer First Approach prioritizes finding a group of customers, identifying aspects of their lives that don't work, and then working backward to create a solution they'll pay for. This clarifies:

Who you are selling to.
What problem you’re solving.
Where they are.

Start With What You Know

The author recounts starting AppSumo.com, which became a company doing over $65 million, by solving his own problem of finding discounts on web-based software. He noticed MacHeist bundling Mac software and applied the concept to non-Mac software.

PRO TIP: Look for something working in one category and bring it to another.
PRO TIP: When in doubt, solve your own problems. If you're willing to pay for a solution, others likely are too.

He validated AppSumo by cold-emailing Imgur's creator and Reddit's founding engineer to offer discounted Imgur Pro subscriptions to Redditors. He built the initial AppSumo.com site in 48 hours for $50, proving the concept by making sales minutes after the ads went live on Reddit. This illustrates the focus on Zero to $1 – getting the first dollar creates momentum.

Founder First vs. Customer First

Many "wantrepreneurs" fall into the Founder First mentality, spending time on planning, logos, LLCs, and research before knowing if anyone will pay. The Customer First Approach for a dog-walking app, for example, would be to immediately call three dog owners, ask them to pay for walks, discover their real problem (dog-sitting), and then get a deposit for that service. This leads to real revenue before spending money or writing code.

Finding Customers and Becoming a Problem Seeker

Begin with potential customers in your Zone of Influence (friends, colleagues, communities). Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook by emailing friends, and Microsoft started with Bill Gates building software for a single client.

The best entrepreneurs are the most dissatisfied; their frustrations are business opportunities. The author advises keeping a notebook to jot down things that bother you, like struggles with quick breakfasts or finding a house cleaner. Boris Korsunsky, a friend, validated a private chef service by emailing friends about the problem of not having time to cook quality meals, securing five sales quickly.

Idea Generators

The chapter presents four methods to generate profitable ideas (or problems to solve):

Solve Your Own Problems: Ask what irritates you, what's been on your to-do list for over a week, what you regularly fail at, or what you wanted to buy but no one made. Shane Heath, for example, created Mud/Wtr (a coffee replacement) from his anxiety about coffee, now a $60 million/year business.
Bestsellers Are Your Best Friends: Look at popular products (e.g., Amazon's Bestseller list) and think of ways to accessorize them or offer services to their users.
Marketplaces: Study marketplaces like Craigslist, Etsy, or Facebook Marketplace for frequent requests for services or products. Check completed listings on eBay to gauge demand and pricing.
Search Engine Queries: Use Google searches or tools like AnswerThePublic.com to find problems people are actively searching solutions for (e.g., "How do I train my cat to use a toilet?"). Look for "painkillers" (must-have solutions) over "vitamins" (nice-to-haves). Reddit's r/SomebodyMakeThis subreddit is also a gold mine for ideas.

After generating a list of ten or more ideas, you should pick the top three that are most fun and easiest to work with, acknowledging that ideas will evolve.

Challenges

Top three groups: Identify three groups of people you have easy access to and are excited to help.
Solve your own problems: Use the four guiding questions to find three business ideas that solve your own frustrations.
Bestsellers are your best friends: List two ideas for accessorizing or offering services related to bestselling products.
Marketplaces: Find at least one product or service idea by browsing marketplaces like Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or eBay.
Search engine queries: Use search engines or Reddit forums to find two more business ideas based on common questions or expressed needs.

Chapter 4: The One-Minute Business Model

This chapter focuses on verifying if your business idea has million-dollar potential and how to pivot if it doesn't. The author illustrates this with his "jerky experiment," where he challenged himself to make $1,000 profit in 24 hours without using his existing networks.

Step 1. Find $1 Million Worth of Customers

The core idea is that the market (the wave) is what matters most, not just having a great product (surfboard) or being a great entrepreneur (surfer). A "tidal wave" of existing demand is ideal. Examples like Robert Samuel's "Same Ole Line Dudes" (a line-sitting business earning $80,000/year) and Codie Sanchez teaching about "boring businesses" like vending machines highlight that big opportunities aren't limited to tech.

To assess a million-dollar opportunity, answer two questions:

Is the overall market dying, flat, or growing? You want flat or growing. Use Google Trends to see search popularity.
Is this a million-dollar opportunity? This requires knowing the number of potential customers and your product's price. Use Facebook Ads to estimate audience size for keywords.

For a beard oil idea, for instance, Google Trends might show flat-to-growing interest, and Facebook Ads might reveal 2.5 million potential customers for "beard oil". If your product costs $50, the total potential value is $125,000,000, confirming it as a million-dollar idea.

Step 2. Is This a Million-Dollar Opportunity?

To determine if an idea is a million-dollar opportunity, the simple calculation is: (Price Point) x (Number of Ideal Customers) = At least $1 million?. This is a quick assessment, not a detailed financial plan.

Step 3. The One-Minute Business Model

This model is simplified to: Revenue – Cost = Profit. To reach $1 million in profit, you divide the target profit by the profit per unit. For the beard oil example, if profit per unit is $12.50, you'd need to sell 80,000 units to make $1,000,000. This figure sounds daunting but accounts for future sales, subscriptions, and additional products.

Step 4. Pivot and Evolve—Your Revenue Dials

The author realized his initial plan for Sumo Jerky (selling a single $20 bag with $5 profit) would require 200 sales in 24 hours, which was "too many sales in too little time". This forced him to pivot. Almost every successful business had to pivot or change course.

The six Revenue Dials you can use to adjust your business model are:

Average order value: Increase the amount someone purchases.
Frequency: Increase how often someone will buy your service.
Price point: Increase or decrease your price point.
Customer type: Approach a more lucrative/wealthier customer segment.
Product line: Add additional products.
Add-on services: Offer services alongside a product.

By changing Sumo Jerky to a 6-month subscription at $120 (with $30 profit per unit), he only needed 33 sales, making the $1,000 goal much more doable. This also involved shifting the customer type to offices that buy snacks.

Challenge

The Million-Dollar Opportunity Challenge: Pick one business idea, ensure it's a million-dollar opportunity using Google Trends and Facebook Ads, and confirm its profitability with the One-Minute Business Model. If it doesn't pass, move to another idea.

Chapter 5: The 48-Hour Money Challenge

This chapter focuses on the critical step of Validation, which means finding three customers in 48 hours who will give you money for your idea. The author successfully completed his Sumo Jerky challenge, generating $4,040 in revenue and $1,135 in profit in 24 hours by selling jerky packages, sourcing the product after getting paid.

The Golden Rule of Validation

The benefits of validation are immediate: it saves time and money, proves market willingness to pay, generates upfront money, and creates urgency. The core principle is the Golden Rule of Validation: Find three customers in forty-eight hours who will give you money for your idea.

Limitations breed creativity: The tight 48-hour deadline forces fast iteration.
First three customers: Getting the first customer (friend), second (family), and especially the third (hard) proves the idea's viability.
Collect money up front: Actual payment is real validation, not just expressed interest. Use easy payment services like PayPal, Stripe, Cash App, or Venmo. It's acceptable to sell a product before making it, as long as expectations for delivery are clear.

Three Methods to Validate ANY Business Idea

Direct Preselling: Making direct contact with real people, describing what you're selling, and asking for money. Eric built a $750,000-a-year painting business by knocking on doors and offering free estimates. Dana, a Monthly1K student, validated her horse-industry business by messaging friends and horse groups, securing $1,000 in her first week by preselling expert knowledge without building a website or app.
- Your Dream Ten List: Create a list of 10 ideal prospects, starting with those in your "Zone of Influence" (friends, family, colleagues) who are easiest to reach.
- Scripts for Preselling: Use a three-part framework:
  - Listen: Get customers talking about their problems using "what" or "how" questions (e.g., "What's the most frustrating thing about what's currently going on?").
  - Options: Suggest solutions and see if they'd pay.
  - Transition: Make a clear offer with Price + Benefit + Time (e.g., "For $50, I can fix your computer today. Sound good?").
- Dealing with Rejection: Rejections are "TREASURE" and opportunities to learn. Use a four-question script when rejected:
  1. "Why not?"
  2. "Who is one person you know who would really like this?" (ask for specific referrals)
  3. "What would make this a no-brainer for you?"
  4. "What would you pay for that?" The author used this to pivot from a failed "taco poster" idea to a successful "taco shirt" after feedback.
Marketplaces: Utilize sites like Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or Reddit to test demand for products or services. Neville validated a camera rental business by posting on Craigslist, earning $75 in a few hours with $0 cost. The author also used this by posting a photo of a custom disc golf disc on Facebook Marketplace, asking for PayPal payments, and getting 20 orders before finding a manufacturer.
Landing Pages: Set up a simple landing page (using tools like Instapage, Unbounce, ClickFunnels, or SendFox.com) and drive traffic with ads to see if people will sign up or preorder. The author generally dislikes this as it can be slow and costly, but advises limiting work to 48 hours. Justin Mares successfully validated Kettle & Fire bone broth with a basic landing page, $12 domain, $5 logo, and $50 in Bing ads, generating nearly $500 in revenue in two weeks before scaling to a $100 million company.

Challenge

Validation: Get at least three paying customers within 48 hours. Use your Dream Ten list and direct messaging/calling with the provided script. If no one buys, choose another idea and start over.

Chapter 6: Social Media Is for Growth . . .

This chapter explains how to build an audience on social media for growth. The author shares his personal story of raising $30,000 for Bo Bikes Bama charity in three days from his audience, highlighting that he recognized "nearly every name" among the 102 donors, indicating a strong, engaged community.

Build an Audience Who Will Support You for Life

This community represents Seth Godin's "smallest viable audience" or Kevin Kelly's "1,000 true fans"—a high-value, attentive group that will support your entrepreneurial moves for years. This community is built through generosity, by "Adding value without expectation". The author highlights his 20 years of giving free content through OkDork and AppSumo as the foundation for this reciprocal relationship. He also emphasizes "building in public," sharing successes and failures, as a way to connect with people.

Finding Your Unique Angle

To stand out, define your "special sauce" or unique angle in 30 seconds or less. Ben Kenyon, an NBA strength coach, defined his as: "I’ve been a performance coach for the last fourteen years, working with the best athletes in the world. Helping people perform better is my groove. I want to help anybody who wants to have a great day and shift them into the mentality to dominate their life. I have information to share when it comes to dealing with the best". This pitch defines:

Who he is.
Why you should trust him.
What he is passionate about.
What unique thing this prepares him to do for you.

Pick a Platform

Choose one FREE platform to reach your audience. The choice should be based on three factors:

Which site has the audience you want to connect with?
What medium do YOU enjoy creating content in?
What disproportionate results will you get compared to the work you put in?

The author chose YouTube because it's the largest streaming video site with 122 million active daily users, monetizes videos, and hosts them for free, offering less competition due to the harder content creation. He notes that even without being on camera, channels like SunnyV2 have massive subscribers.

Creating Content for Your Core Circle

The author introduces the Content Circle Framework to build raving fans and expand influence:

Core Circle: Start with a very narrow, specific audience and niche (e.g., Ali Abdaal started with medical school exams for British people). This builds passionate fans.
Medium Circle: Expand content to appeal to a broader audience while still overlapping with the Core Circle's interests (e.g., Ali Abdaal discussed general studying and productivity).
Large Circle: Aim for the largest related audience possible (e.g., Ali Abdaal made videos about his salary or Apple products for productivity). All circles should include the core audience while expanding influence.

Examples include Dustin Wunderlich's "Dustin's Fish Tanks" (from reviewing fish tanks to all things fish), Kyle Lasota's "kylegotcamera" (biohacking reviews to a tight community, netting $1M/year from affiliate sales), and Andy Schneider, the "Chicken Whisperer" (from backyard chicken raising meetings to a radio show and book).

Be the Guide, Not the Guru

People prefer a guide who shares their journey ("How I...") rather than a lecturing "guru" ("How to..."). Document your own process and progress, including failures, to be relatable. Engaging your audience through challenges or interaction (like LegalEagle encouraging "objections" in comments) boosts engagement and content rankings.

Challenges

Write out your unique angle: Define yourself, why people should listen, what you're passionate about, and what you'll do for people.
Update your bio: Choose one platform and update your profile/bio using your unique angle.
Create your own Content Circle: Apply the formula (outcome you'll deliver + target market) for your Core, Medium, and Large content circles.
Post one piece of content: Create and publicly post your first piece of content (video, tweet, blog post) on your chosen platform, prioritizing action over perfection.

Chapter 7: . . . Email Is for Profit

This chapter asserts that email is the most powerful channel for profit and customer communication. The author shares how AppSumo's first $10,000 day came from an email written by copywriter Neville Medhora, which transformed their strategy from dry sales pitches to engaging, story-driven content. This marked a shift in the author's approach, allowing him to infuse personality into marketing.

Your Email List Is Power

The author argues that an email list is the most valuable channel for a business compared to social media followers because you own the distribution and communication, free from fickle platform algorithms.

AppSumo generates nearly 50% of its $65 million revenue from email, a consistent figure for over ten years.
Email is checked daily by over 4 billion people, making it the largest communication channel at scale.
Social media algorithms can drastically reduce reach, as seen with LittleThings losing 75% of its visitors and $100 million due to a Facebook algorithm change.
You own your email list forever; it's an "insurance policy".
Growing and communicating with your list is significantly cheaper than paid ads.
The author stresses that the number one regret of most entrepreneurs is not starting their email list sooner.
Quality over quantity is key: a healthy email list has a 20% open rate, indicating a strong bond and trust, which is more valuable than sheer size.

Set Up a Landing Page

To collect email subscribers, you need a simple landing page with an image, brief text, and an email input box. This is where you offer a Lead Magnet (bonus content) to incentivize sign-ups, like Julien Marion's Sleep Sumo page offering a free sleep tip.

Getting Your First 100 Email Subscribers

0 to 10—The Dream Ten: Start with your existing network (friends, family, contacts) as they know and care about you. Use a template message to invite them to subscribe.
11 to 50—Lazy Marketing: Publicize your landing page everywhere without active effort: in your email signature, and in your social media bios (Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook). A person sends ~40 emails per day, offering many "lottery tickets" for sign-ups.
51 to 100—Post in Your Places: Post a modified invitation in your active social media groups (Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Reddit). Also, use targeted referrals, asking family and friends to refer one specific person who would benefit from your content.

Growing Beyond Your First Subscribers

To grow beyond your initial circle, create insanely detailed, high-value free content and incentivize sign-ups with a Lead Magnet. Chris Von Wilpert's detailed blog post dissecting HubSpot's content marketing, combined with a "growth hacks" spreadsheet as a Lead Magnet, grew his email list from 0 to over 1,000 in two weeks, leading to a $100,000 opportunity with the author. Lead Magnets can be checklists, templates, advanced guides, or unique free books.

Set Up Your Cash Register

New subscribers are "MOST excited" about your business at the moment they sign up, so funnel them into more experiences immediately. An autoresponder automatically sends a sequence of emails to new subscribers (e.g., using SendFox.com, Mailchimp.com, or ConvertKit.com). The recommended sequence is:

Welcome Email: A warm welcome, asking what content would provide value to them. The author personally engages with each new subscriber, especially when starting out.
Connection Email: Explicitly ask them to connect on your social media channels.
Content Email: Provide a piece of your best content (blog post, video, free course) to minimize the natural decline in open rates.

The Law of 100

To combat giving up too early, the author introduces the Law of 100: Whatever you commit to, do it 100 times before you even THINK of stopping. This stops you from succumbing to "the dip," the point where you want to quit. Examples include publishing 100 YouTube videos, writing 100 emails, or practicing a hobby for 100 days. The key is to focus on the process (doing the reps) with "complete disregard for your results" for the first 100 instances, as this builds consistency and improvement.

Challenges

Build your landing page: Set up a simple landing page for your email list.
Update email signature and social media bios: Add your landing page link to these.
Create a Lead Magnet: Develop your first Lead Magnet, spending no more than two hours on the initial iteration.
Set up an autoresponder: Configure a welcome email, connection email, and content email sequence.
The Law of 100: Commit to doing 100 repetitions of a key task (e.g., emails, posts) and track your progress on a provided grid.

Chapter 8: The Growth Machine

This chapter presents the author's "battle-tested growth playbook" for repeatedly growing businesses, which he's used for eight million-dollar ventures including Mint.com (reaching 1 million users in six months) and SendFox.com (10,000 customers in six months). The plan involves answering five key questions:

What is your one goal for this year?
Who exactly is your customer and where can you find them?
What is one marketing activity you can double down on?
How can you delight your first 100 customers?
If you HAD to double your business with no money in thirty days, what would you do?

1. Set a single hyper-focused exact goal.

Inspired by Mark Zuckerberg's laser focus on reaching 1 billion users for Facebook, the author emphasizes setting one very specific, measurable goal with a time frame. For AppSumo, the initial goal was 100,000 email addresses. Breaking down a large goal (e.g., 500,000 YouTube subscribers in one year) into monthly targets helps stay focused and motivated.

2. Create your Marketing Experiment List.

Instead of sticking to one marketing idea that might not work, rapidly try different strategies and track them with an Experiment-Based Marketing list. The example of Daniel Bliss, who aimed to make $4,000/month from his belay glasses business (requiring 166 sales/month), illustrates this. Daniel created a list of potential marketing strategies and their expected sales (e.g., personal network, wholesale, marketplaces, giveaways, Facebook ads).

The first step is always to work backwards from your goal.
Who is your ideal customer? Define them specifically (e.g., "People who rock climb outdoors at least once a week").
Where are they? List specific places (online or offline) where these customers can be found.

3. Double down on what works.

The golden rule to marketing tactics is: Find what works and double down on it; find what doesn’t work and kill it. Daniel Bliss's experiments showed that wholesale (selling to climbing gyms/online stores) generated 217 sales compared to 0 from eBay, giveaways, or Facebook ads, leading him to focus solely on wholesale. The author highlights his own mistake of spending $20,000 over six months promoting Instagram posts for Sumo.com, which yielded zero revenue, before admitting it wasn't working. He recommends setting a 30-day time limit for marketing experiments to see if a channel is promising. If something is "too hard and not working after a good try? Give up and move on!".

4. Make Your First 100 Customers Happier

The biggest growth lever is customer retention and referrals. Overdelivering to current customers makes them happy, leading to referrals and more sales of new products. The author exemplifies this by personally replying to every YouTube comment, giving his personal phone number to Gambit customers, and writing to AppSumo customers to gather feedback and build loyalty. He stresses that this personal touch is "not scalable. That's the point". He advises asking customers: "What is one thing we can do today that will make you twice as happy with us?". Nick Bare of Bare Performance Nutrition built a seven-figure business by personally messaging every customer.

Challenges

Who’s your customer?: Describe your ideal customer with specific details (gender, age, location, common interest, hobbies).
Where are your customers?: List at least five places where your ideal customers can be found and estimate how many sales you can get from each in 30 days.
What marketing strategies can I double down on?: Update your marketing experiments sheet with actual sales to identify which strategies to double down on and which to abandon.
Make your customers happy: Ask one customer: "What is one thing I can do today that will make you twice as happy with us?".

Chapter 9: 52 Chances This Year

This final chapter focuses on designing the business and life you want by establishing systems and routines, and building a supportive network. The author recounts feeling "lost and sad" despite AppSumo doing $4 million/year, realizing he was living life as he thought a CEO should, not as he truly desired. This led him to redefine success on his own terms, prioritizing freedom, promoting only products he believed in, and structuring his day to avoid undesired tasks. Entrepreneurship, he realized, is a chance to build your work around your life.

Bringing Out Your Dreams

To design your own system, you must believe you can redesign your life to create space for fun and fulfillment. The first step to achieving what you want is "allowing yourself to want it".

Dream Year Checklist

Imagine your "best year ever" by creating a detailed and specific Dream Year checklist that includes personal, health, travel, and work aspirations (e.g., growing YouTube, finding a dream house, flying a plane, biking across America). This list should inspire and help you prioritize your goals, serving as a vision to work towards.

Turn Your Dream Year into Goals

From your Dream Year, select the most exciting items and categorize them into four sections: Work, Health, Personal, and Travel. The author emphasizes choosing fewer, sustainable goals rather than overly aggressive ones. He recommends reviewing and updating this list only twice a year and placing your goals in highly visible places (phone lock screen, mirror) to stay focused.

Coloring Your Calendar

To ensure you allocate time to what matters, use a color-coded calendaring system. Each category (e.g., Work, Health, Personal, Travel) gets a color, allowing you to instantly see if your time allocation aligns with your goals. The author suggests front-loading priorities by scheduling important tasks earlier in the week when energy is high. He reviews his calendar weekly to assess progress against goals, which keeps him accountable and helps improve consistently. He also advises leveraging laziness by outsourcing or automating tasks that don't directly contribute to goals.

Never Entrepreneur Alone

The author attributes "Ninety percent of my net worth" to meeting people and stresses that "Great entrepreneurs have great entrepreneurial communities. There’s no such thing as self-made. Everyone is team-made". Entrepreneurs need a strong support system to combat loneliness and frustration.

Three ways to build your support network:

Get an Accountability Buddy: Find someone you respect, preferably a peer, to send weekly reviews of what you accomplished and plan for the next week. This external pressure (Hawthorne effect) helps keep you honest and on track. This buddy must reply and hold you accountable.
Target Prefluencers: Connect with ambitious people before they become famous. The author met Tim Ferriss and Ramit Sethi as "Prefluencers" when they were just starting out, and these relationships proved invaluable. Identify those doing impressive work without much attention, and offer to help them without expectations.
Build Your VIP Network with Referrals: Andrew Chen, a venture capitalist, built his network by setting a goal to "Meet five new people per day for my first six months in the Bay Area". He would send thank-you emails after meetings, summarizing highlights and explicitly asking for 1-2 more referrals. For introductions, he'd send an email with a strong hook (e.g., mutual connection), a short blurb about himself, the value he could provide, and why he was excited to meet them.

The chapter concludes by reinforcing that the journey of entrepreneurship involves continuous starting, experimenting, and failing until success is achieved. It's about defining success for yourself and having the grit to keep going no matter what.

Challenges

Share your story of success: Send an email or post on social media about how you've improved your life.
Write out your Dream Year: Create a detailed and specific checklist of your ideal year.
Find one person to send your yearly goals to: Identify a trusted individual for accountability.
Yearly goals list: Categorize your Dream Year items into Work, Health, Personal, and Travel goals.
Accountability buddy: Find one person to send weekly goals to.
Connect with a Prefluencer: Identify an impressive person without much attention and send a compliment without asking for anything in return.
Ask your friends for one referral: Ask a trusted friend for one referral to expand your network, using a specific script.