Focus on identifying and utilizing “insights,” defined as the smallest unit of actionable truth, as this approach is linked to greater success, especially in business.
Practice distilling complex ideas and wisdom down to their most fundamental, indivisible units or “first principles,” which serve as powerful building blocks for understanding and innovation.
Understand that the process of seeking truth can be difficult and unnatural, but cultivate an appreciation for it, as it is essential for uncovering insights that drive success.
Shift your focus from “what,” “when,” and “how” questions to “why” questions, as exploring the underlying reasons for phenomena leads to greater insight and understanding.
Cultivate a relentless drive to uncover the truth about your market, customers, and product, as entrepreneurs who fail to do so risk business failure.
Recognize that “truth” (market realities, customer needs) is constantly evolving, especially in rapidly disrupting environments; continuously update your understanding to remain relevant.
Go beyond surface-level truth-seeking to uncover the underlying, deeper motivations and problems your product truly solves, as this reveals larger market opportunities and creates more enduring businesses.
Develop the rare ability to delve into nuances and connect them back to basic principles, as this skill is a powerful driver of wealth and success in a world that increasingly lacks processing power for complexity.
Adopt a mindset with lower shame and self-doubt, being less concerned with being mocked or having lower dignity if it leads to commercial success, as seen in successful business communities.
Adopt a mindset where business failure is viewed as a natural part of the entrepreneurial process, reducing the shame attached to it and encouraging repeated attempts.
Cultivate a comfort level with risking significant portions (30-40%) of one’s reputation, wealth, and health, as this willingness to take substantial risks is often a driver of greater advancement.
Embrace the willingness to appear foolish or ignorant in the short term, as this openness to vulnerability can lead to significant long-term advantages and learning.
Cultivate shamelessness by publicly proposing random conjectures or hypotheses without fear of judgment; this invites feedback and corrections, which can sharpen insights and connect further dots.
Consider shedding public markers of identity (e.g., social media bios, profile pictures, even names) to become less susceptible to manipulation and external triggers.
Recognize that publicly declared sources of pride (e.g., “proud father,” “proud alum”) can serve as “handles” for others to manipulate you by appealing to your social identity.
Recognize that a strong need to be a “fan” or to have “favorites” can make one easily offended; cultivate a more neutral stance to reduce susceptibility to emotional triggers.
Develop an internal locus of control for happiness and pride, avoiding reliance on external validation (likes, applause), as optimizing for others’ metrics hinders the development of inner substance.
Focus on continuous self-improvement by benchmarking your current self against your past self (e.g., six months ago), rather than comparing yourself to others.
Regularly change and upgrade your social network to include people with higher ambitions and goals, as envy and comparison are “hyper local” and influence your drive within your immediate circle.
Understand and accept that personal growth often necessitates outgrowing certain relationships or social circles, as this is a natural “price” of continuous development.
To improve, focus on copying specific tactics and processes from successful individuals at the next level, rather than comparing yourself to their overall results, which can lead to unhappiness.
When seeking to imitate or learn, find mentors or role models who have recently achieved the “next level” of success in your specific domain, as their tactics are more likely to be relevant and actionable than those of distant, highly accomplished figures.
Engage with philosophy to develop critical thinking skills, learn how to seek truth, and cultivate a habit of questioning established knowledge and beliefs.
Implement a daily “Why-Fi” practice: ask or propose a “why” question (e.g., “Why is the sky blue?”) and then research and present the answer the next day, fostering deeper insight and maturity.
Recognize that fundamental human motivations revolve around improving social status, mating success, and the success of one’s offspring, as these drives underpin many consumer behaviors across cultures.
To identify true, unchanging core human motivations, consider what people would be willing to sacrifice a significant portion (e.g., half their net worth) for, as these represent deep-seated desires.
Cultivate a natural and intuitive understanding of what constitutes value in products and services, and precisely what motivates people to pay for them, often by breaking things down to unit economics.
Go beyond functional utility to uncover the deep-seated emotional motivations (e.g., status, signaling, belonging) that truly drive people to use or buy a product, as this understanding is crucial for effective product design and marketing.
Validate the commercial viability of your product by asking if real people (e.g., family members, a CFO) would genuinely pay for it, moving beyond theoretical market assumptions.
Look for insights that are not immediately obvious but, once articulated, create a clear “Aha!” moment of understanding and resonance, as these often form the basis of successful ventures.
Identify and target specific, high-motivation aspects of a broader service (e.g., “living room renovation” instead of “home renovation”) to align with consumer desires and unlock significant revenue.
Design products and services that offer users a perceived increase in social status, as these offerings command higher gross margins compared to utility-focused products that do not enhance status.
When seeking high gross margins, prioritize creating products or services that appeal to vanity or offer a chance to increase social status, as these motivations drive significant consumer spending.
Create and sell personalized products or services, as people are often willing to pay a significant premium for items that feel uniquely made for them or for gifting.
Develop products or services that allow people to differentiate themselves and achieve a superior social status, as consumers are often willing to pay significantly more for such offerings.
Strategically limit the supply of a product or service, even if not inherently scarce, to create artificial demand and justify a higher price point.
Consider offering core utility services for free to attract users, then monetize through cross-selling high-gross-margin services that appeal to vanity, social status, or other emotional motivations.
For SaaS businesses, provide core tools for free to acquire users, then generate revenue by cross-selling value-added services like lending, advanced technology, or other high-margin offerings.
Focus intensely on identifying and entering markets with strong tailwinds, as a good market can lead to success even for a mediocre founder, while a bad market can doom even the best founder.
Identify existing strong human motivations (“rivers of motivation”) first, then build solutions (“dams”) to tap into them, rather than building a solution and hoping a need emerges.
Aim to create products or services that offer a “Delta 4” efficiency improvement (a score of 4 or more on a 10-point scale compared to old methods), leading to irreversible user behavior, high tolerance for flaws, and a “unique brag-worthy proposition” that encourages organic spread.
Begin by offering a simple, focused solution (“a knife”) that addresses a clear consumer need, rather than building an overly complex, multi-functional product (“a Swiss Army knife”) that confuses users and lacks a clear entry point.
When developing an idea, actively envision and articulate how it can scale from its current state into a very large company or impact, rather than getting stuck on immediate functionalities.
Choose to actively build and create, even if passive activities like investing might offer a higher return on time, if the act of building brings significantly more personal joy and fulfillment.
Develop the discipline to keep secrets, as this ability is a strong indicator of an “information asymmetry seeking brain” and is often observed in wealthy individuals who can manage and store valuable information.
Understand that actively seeking and leveraging information asymmetry (unique knowledge or insights) is crucial for creating wealth, even though it may not come naturally to most people.
When making important decisions, seek advice from “champions” in that field—individuals who consistently have many choices—as their experience with broader options often leads to superior decision-making.
Measure success not just by outcomes, but by the expansion of your available choices within a given field, as having more options generally correlates with better decision-making and overall success.
Leverage emotions as a valuable tool for detecting when something is “off” or identifying symptoms of a problem, but avoid using emotions to make decisions or solve problems, as this often leads to poor outcomes.
Cultivate a long-term mindset across all aspects of life, as virtually all bad behaviors, poor decisions, and ethical lapses stem from short-term thinking.
Extend long-term thinking to all relationships, envisioning them as lasting for decades; this perspective naturally eliminates incentives for short-term exploitative or poor behaviors.
Understand that reputation is built slowly, like depositing a dollar a day, but can be destroyed almost instantly; therefore, cultivate it patiently and protect it diligently, as it cannot be “hacked.”
Prioritize building foundational substance, skills, and resilience before pursuing rapid wealth or success, as quick gains without the underlying “muscle” often lead to quick losses or inability to sustain success.
Continuously and objectively evaluate past decisions, reflecting on them without emotional bias to refine your decision-making “algorithm” over time, even if not formally journaling.
Employ the “What Would X Do?” framework (e.g., “What would Steve Jobs do?”) to gain different perspectives, challenge your own biases, and make better decisions by simulating the thought processes of respected figures.
Read autobiographies and biographies with the specific goal of internalizing the decision-making frameworks and thought processes of successful individuals, enabling you to apply “What Would X Do?” effectively.
Actively practice shifting your frame of reference by trying to see problems through different lenses or other people’s eyes, as this is the most effective way to reveal blind spots, which are the root cause of poor decisions.
Develop the ability to mentally adopt “multiple personalities” or perspectives when analyzing situations, allowing you to view problems from various angles and identify blind spots that a single viewpoint would miss.
Engage in extensive reading and travel to acquire a multitude of “lenses” or frames of reference, which reduces surprise, broadens understanding, and makes you less intolerant by exposing you to alternate realities.
Publicly state your predictions or conjectures; this “crowdsources” your decision-making journal, as others will remind you when you are right and correct you when you are wrong, leading to more efficient learning and self-correction.
Regularly calculate your “value per hour” and assess whether your current activities are generating a higher “market cap per hour” than your baseline, using this metric to optimize your time and efforts.
Focus on accumulating diverse and intense “experiences per year” (high slope learning) rather than merely “years of experience,” as the former will be a more valued metric for future hiring and growth.
To build and sustain a high-performing company, actively maintain a high concentration of “high-slope” individuals (those with rapid learning and growth trajectories), as their ambition and drive push the organization forward.
Foster a work environment where high performers are surrounded by other high performers, as this raises standards, encourages engagement, and prevents top talent from leaving due to frustration with mediocrity.
Focus on maximizing “revenue per employee” as a key metric, as companies that do so naturally cultivate and retain a higher density of top talent.
Recognize that “high-slope” individuals (rapid learners, high performers) are a global asset; policies that restrict their movement will cause them to flow to other environments, benefiting those countries in the long run.
Cultivate the skill to quickly identify other “high-slope” individuals (rapid learners, high performers) within short interactions, as this ability is key for building high-performing teams and networks.
Regularly seek out and share information about new trends, aiming to enter emerging markets where competition is lower to capture value early.
Actively search for business opportunities and markets where competition is minimal, rather than directly confronting existing competitors, to achieve success.
Be willing to reduce perceived social status or dignity if it ensures a commercial victory, focusing on the financial upside of a deal.
Provide financial support, such as low-interest loans, to community members to help them start businesses, fostering collective success and offering a safety net.
Create a community support system that offers a “soft landing” for individuals whose businesses fail, allowing them to stabilize through temporary employment and then re-enter entrepreneurship without shame.
Offer to teach specialized or “exotic” subjects that are not readily available, even if you need to learn them yourself beforehand, as teaching is an effective way to master new skills while also generating income.
Provide tangible incentives (e.g., vouchers) for users to adopt your platform, especially when it offers a more efficient alternative to existing methods, to drive rapid user acquisition.
In markets with artificial price controls (e.g., MRP), differentiate your offerings and cater to specific segments by providing exceptional service and creating a distinct, premium experience.
In large, diverse markets with significant income disparities, focus on serving the most affluent and monetizable customer segments who understand and value time, rather than chasing a broad, unmonetizable mass market.
Develop services that provide a distinct identity or recognition for affluent individuals, reducing friction in their interactions and transactions, especially in systems where differentiation is otherwise difficult.
In low-trust societies, identify or become a highly trusted entity, as this allows for successful expansion into diverse product categories, with consumers readily adopting new offerings due to existing trust.
In markets with low per capita income or limited depth (e.g., many Asian markets), avoid narrow focus; instead, cross-sell a wider range of products and services to the same customer base to achieve scale.
In markets where the value of time is not understood and monetization is difficult (e.g., India), offer free services to gain a large user base (DAUs), but temper revenue expectations (ARPU).
Recognize that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and consumer motivations for spending can vary significantly across cultures (e.g., Asian vs. Western societies), and tailor product offerings and marketing accordingly.
Do not blindly copy business models from different cultural contexts (e.g., Western models in Asian markets); sometimes, a lack of preconceived notions or industry jargon can be a “superpower” for original idea generation.
Supplement technical skills (STEM) with studies in humanities and human motivation (e.g., philosophy, understanding social dynamics) to better identify what problems to solve and what products to build.
To truly assess a founder’s understanding of their product, ask them to explain it in a different language or at a different level of abstraction; genuine understanding transcends specific phrasing.
Practice explaining your product or service in simple, jargon-free terms, as if recommending it to a friend over dinner; if it cannot be easily transmitted, it will struggle to spread organically.
Calculate and understand your personal value per hour to make better decisions about how you spend your time, especially regarding convenience products and services.
Recognize that truly soulful and memorable experiences, such as vacations or food, are often inherently inefficient; embrace this inefficiency rather than constantly seeking optimization for these aspects of life.
To create truly soulful, memorable, or emotionally arousing experiences, resist the urge to standardize, as standardization often diminishes the unique and inefficient qualities that make something soulful.
To build something resilient and hard to destroy, focus on creating non-standardized products or services, as these are inherently more difficult for competitors to replicate or disrupt.
In cultures where the value of time is not intuitively understood, avoid building businesses solely around convenience or time-saving, as these offerings will struggle to monetize effectively.
In cultures where efficiency is not a core value or businesses prefer hiring more people over investing in software, avoid selling SaaS products that primarily offer efficiency gains.
Recognize that in some cultures (e.g., Asian societies), children are viewed as long-term assets and investments, with an expectation of future care for parents, influencing family spending and saving patterns.
Be wary of business models that optimize for short-term gains at the expense of customer satisfaction, especially in environments with no repeat customers (e.g., tourist traps), as these often indicate “scammy” practices.
Be mindful of how much “processing power” (mental energy) you expend daily, especially on attention-hijacking media, as a depleted capacity can lead to intolerance and an inability to engage with nuance.
Cultivate a habit of researching the origin stories and historical context of various phenomena, as this often reveals underlying first principles and recurring patterns.
To normalize or change behavior around something previously considered shameful, reframe it as a source of pride, as this psychological shift can alter perceptions and actions.
Actively seek out and spend time with a diverse group of friends from different domains and fields, as this broadens your perspective and makes the process of collecting and connecting insights more efficient, accelerating personal compounding.