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independence3 unconnected · 2 more authors in those circles
standing

contested · 9 claims against 2

applies to

b2b and consumer, no audience needed

confidence

high

evidence

15 claims · 15 articles · 4 receipts

window

2017-03-28 → 2023-12-24

3 builders who never spoke to each other · contested

Set the first target low enough to hit

Aim at one dollar earned, then a hundred, because a target you cannot talk yourself out of gets a completed loop finished and teaches the fundamentals. Attrition here is brutal at both steps, most people never start and most starters never earn anything, so define success for the first attempt as learning how the game works.

What both sides agree on

  • Six months is long enough to get a product earning something, but a year is the wrong horizon for judging the whole attempt.
  • Expect the attrition to be brutal at both steps: most people who consider making a product never start, and most of those who do never earn a single dollar from it.
  • Notice when launch planning has become about your own reputation and peer opinion, and redirect the time to the people who might pay.

Where this splits

One camp writes down the annual income the business must produce before starting, another treats any required revenue figure by a fixed month as the wrong frame entirely.

  1. side 01 · 9 claims

    Judge the first attempt by what you learn

    Cory Zue · Jack Ellis · Justin Jackson · Preetam Nath

    1. 1Count your accumulated attempts rather than your age; the groundwork is what determines the outcome, not the year you start.
    2. 2Favour volume over perfectionism specifically while you are learning a skill, producing content, or establishing yourself in an industry, because iteration teaches faster than polishing one attempt.
    3. 3Redefine success for a first attempt as learning how the game works over one or two years, so the outcome is a win regardless of the financial result.
    4. 4Set your first revenue target low enough to be embarrassing, earn one dollar or a hundred on the internet, and use that completed loop to learn the fundamentals before scaling ambition.
    5. 5Do not make a guaranteed revenue figure by a fixed month a precondition for starting, since demanding a certain outcome from an uncertain process is the wrong frame for the work.

  2. side 02 · 2 claims

    Write down the income number before you start

    Justin Jackson · Preetam Nath

    1. 1Fix two numbers before launching: the monthly revenue that covers your living costs, and a stretch figure you would be delighted by, and let those set what counts as success.
    2. 2Write down the specific annual income you want from the business before you begin, so success and failure are both measurable.

What it returned

  • 45

    A Harvard Business study found that founders who succeed average 45 years old; Justin co-founded Transistor at 38.

  • 2,543

    In the ceramics class Tom Kenny described, the highest-quality work came from the group graded on quantity rather than the group told to make one good piece; Jonathan Mann has published over 2,543 daily songs on YouTube and reckons 70% are fine, 20% bad and 10% good.

  • This is how Giacomo Guilizzoni framed leaving Adobe before he started Balsamiq.

  • A commenter on Zue's first post warned that his six-month timeline was worrying while insisting revenue was achievable in it; Zue's first place card dollar arrived a few weeks before the six months ran out

Sources

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

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the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

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