10 years ago, Netflix spent $0 on original content.

This year:

Netflix: $11B
Apple: $6B
Disney: $1B
+ amazon, hulu HBO etc.
=
$20B+

Here's a crazy startup idea to take a swing at this $20B+ content piñata. 👇 Here's a quick business plan 🤔

So I thought the whole "paid newsletter" thing was dumb.

So naturally, I tried it out as an experiment.. The results were kinda nutty. The newsletter started bringing home $49k per month (!) -- Here's the backstory

"what was the newsletter about?"

Well - for the past year, I've been doing a podcast called My First Million. Gimmicky name, but whatever.

It's a pod where me and @theSamParr (and friends like @awilkinson @_jacksmith etc.) brainstorm business ideas based on trends we see

Anyways - the podcast has gotten pretty big. We do over 350k downloads/month.

People like listening to us shoot the shit, brainstorming ideas.

But as the nearest schmuck will tell you - ideas aren't shit without execution!

The problem is - execution is less sexy.

Usually when people talk about execution, it's in the past tense. We did X, and voila, we won.

They edit & cut out all the dead ends they hit, the stuff they tried that failed.

This gives people a f*cked up idea of what execution really is.

Still - there's demand for learning how to execute better.

The number one question I get in my DMs everyday is: "I love that idea from the pod, how would you approach it?"

There's no simple answer. So for months I just ignored them.

🧠 3 years ago - I created a new framework for New Years Resolutions.

Year after year I would set New Years Resolutions (the same ones every year) and fail to reach them.

Am I doing this wrong? Am I just weak minded?

Then I found this, and switched up my new years routine

I wasn't alone in failing at my new years resolutions.

Not only do 90% of people give up on their new years resolutions… on average they fail by January 18th (known as “Quitters Day”)

It makes sense. If you were waiting for an arbitrary day to decide to change - you probably weren't that commited to begin with.

So instead of making plans for the future, use new years as a moment to reflect

They don't teach us this in school, so here's a framework for it👇

We all just want "the good life".

What the hell is that anyways? More money? More time? Better looks? More romance? Bigger house?

As it turns out, there are 5 key areas that contribute most directly to our quality of life.

The 5 areas are...

1-HEALTH
2-WORK
3-PLAY
4-LOVE
5-SELF RESPECT

So every year, around december 30th, I take out my "Life Dashboard" and write down all these areas.

Here's mine, and I'll put a blank one at the bottom of the thread in case you wanna do your own.

If you wanna level up - the fastest hack is to hangout with people who are ALREADY at that level.

The beauty of twitter is that you can hang with anyone.

The problem is ppl follow the wrong accounts. It's noisy as f*ck.

Here's 27 people you should follow (and why)👇

If you hang with smart, interesting, successful people - you will start to think & talk that way too.

We are monkeys that copy what we see. You can fight it, or use that to your advantage by surrounding yourself with people who you want to become more like.

Group 1: Smart, Rich, & Don't Give a F*ck (no filter)

@chamath - was early FB, has big balls, bet early on Bitcoin & SPACs

@rabois - kind of a dick but he's clearly smart

@balajis - this guy is from the future, and has come back in time to tell us what's going to happen

BTW - I'm recommending people who are:

* smart
* say interesting things
* successful (not just talkers)

Plenty of people are 2 of 3.

You need ALL 3 to make the list

Group 2: Business Buyers - they see the $$$s of 100s of businesses a year.

@awilkinson - built a $200M+ empire of internet businesses

@BrentBeshore - same as^, but non internet (unsexy) biz (eg. swimming pool repair, port-a-potty rentals)

@XavierHelgesen - he does both

Hot take: Everyone is wrong about the Metaverse.

here's my 3 part theory..

Part I - Everyone is wrong

Most people think "the metaverse" is a virtual place.

Like in the movie Ready Player One.

A virtual world, like Minecraft, Roblox, or like Zuck showed in the facebook demo yesterday.

But what if it's not a place?

Part II - It's Not a Place, It's a Time

A time? wtf?

Yes, a moment in time.

You know in artificial intelligence, there's an idea of "the singularity"?

It's a moment in time where AI becomes smarter than humans. The moment when artificial intelligence > human intelligence

Part III - What it is

The metaverse is the moment in time where our digital life is worth more to us than our phsyical life.

This is not an overnight change. Or an invention by some steve jobs type.

It's a gradual change that's been happening for 20 yrs

Every important part of life is going digital.

Work --> from factories to laptops. boardrooms to zooms.

Friends --> from neighbors to followers. Where do you find like minded people? Twitter. Reddit. etc.

Games --> more kids play fortnite than basketball & football combined.

The ancient struggle was not having enough.

The modern struggle is having too much.

Too much news, too much sugar, too much of everything at your fingertips..There's only 1 way out.

Let's lay it out:

On one side, you have "Team Dopamine":
* 24/7 news cycle, full of clickbait headlines
* Social Media, friend's pics that disappear in 24 hours
* Endless varieties of sugar & porn

going up against your tiny, 3 pound brain running 20,000 yr old software

Even if you are a smart person who tries their best to stay healthy & happy... you are going up against Fox News, TikTok, PornHub, Robinhood, Instagram

These are weapons of mental destruction.

Thousands of our smartest engineers & data scientists work at these companies.

They run constant experiments. Fighting against each other for every moment of your attention. So you open THEIR app.

It's skinner's box, rats pushing buttons for rewards. But you're the lab rat.

So what do we do?

We have everything. More than any species, at any time period in history. It's wonderful...but also deadly.

Food injected with syrup sugar
Painkillers you can't live without
Video games where you can fly and kill
Porn better than any date you'll ever have

THREAD: 10 significant things that the best startup founders get right.

(From my notes helping 400+ founders grow their startups.)

The smartest people I’ve met:

They retrain their minds to enjoy being wrong.

They get a dopamine hit when proven wrong because they’re excited to be closer to the truth. The truth is addictive.

In contrast, if you refuse to lose a debate, your brain keeps running old firmware.

I don’t know one highly effective person who isn’t strongly biased toward taking action.

They defer the stuff that doesn’t matter, and they always finish the stuff that does.

It's about rate of iteration and persistence, not brilliance.

The successful people I know have mastered delayed gratification:

They let themselves feel a dopamine hit when they do something that makes their future selves better.

They've learned to value their future self as much as their present self.

Success in life really appears to be two things:

1. Point yourself in the right direction.

2. Do the work even when you're not in the mood to.

(And privilege.)

Only two types of startups exist: technology-led and culture-led

(a short thread on this mental model)

🔥 It's also the 7th chapter of my book https://t.co/iLfMb0xhnD

1/ There are two ways an entrepreneur can fail:

a) launch a product that nobody desires;

b) launch a product that people desire but with no significant advantage over established competitors (hence give no strong reason for a customer to switch away).

2/ These two failure modes have their analogous success modes:

a) culture-led startup success where a new desire is discovered and fulfilled;

b) technology-led startup success where new technology is used to fulfill an existing desire.

3/ Let’s explore culture-led startups first.

They are the ones in which the entrepreneur is able to observe a pattern of new derivative desires that didn’t exist before.

Such trends are very hard to spot because initially they can be mistaken either as fads or insignificant.

4/ However, an entrepreneur who has good observation skills is able to connect the dots from diverse sources to grow his conviction about a cultural shift just when the market is

Your 9 to 5 job can transform you into a man of value.

Stop working for the money. Work for authority.

This is a lesson from my dad.

A life hack.

Thread

You spend at least 40 hours a week at your work to make money.

Thats over 2000 hours a year. If you want these hours to mean more than just money, & help you develop your character,

then your approach towards work must change.

Its an overlooked topic that industriousness has tremendous mental & psychological impact on men and their transformation of becoming high value.

Here's a step by step blueprint on letting your job mould your character.

If you want your job to infiltrate your personality and mould you into a man of value,

you need authority.

So the first step is to assess the landscape of your job & whether you are able to attain this authoirty.

If you're in a work environment that makes you a supplicant to every person, quit your job.

I never recommend rash decisions, but working in a place where you are NOTHING but a subordinate, with ZERO opportunity to move up,

is psychologically damaging to your manhood.

I really like @sweatystartup’s tone - and I think it applies to trading

Most fintwits try to sound smart and do complex formulas to convince you you’re too dumb to manage your own $. It’s marketing

For traders focused on cash flow:
A thread on what I call “the pnl grind”.

1/ the grind is a grind because it’s work ethic. 12 hours a day, min. And weekends.

The grind is a grind because it’s hitting singles. 5-10 trade concepts a day. Hypothesize. Swing. Measure. Repeat.

The grind is a term that comes from gangster rap. And it’s focused on 💵

2/ what does a “grind trade” look like? Signal hit the top of the App Store. What’s a basket of trades that will work in a privacy focused world?

Long Eqix short Twtr - private cloud vs regulation
Long Z cash short bitcoin - private crypto vs censored crypto

Just examples

3/ grind trading is all about 1 off events that diverge from history. Quant traders don’t model them well bc lack of history. Fancy long / short guys are slow moving their books. Day traders aren’t focused on fundamentals.

And let’s be honest - grinding works bc it’s brutal

4/ when Biden said he was going all in on cyber security, due to Russian hacking - it meant Russia was the new media scapegoat, so Blinken could deal w 🇨🇳. Blinken is a communist boot licker. So what. Don’t get emotional. Monetize. You went long $Feye/ $JD. Got paid. Moved on.

How to run a company (in priority order):

1: Define a crystal clear north star

Great companies know their destination.

Everyone rowing in one direction.

The best north star? A SIMPLE, measurable metric.

Get it right, and watch the magic unfold! 💫

2: Hire uncomfortably good people

Ah, my favorite line!

Hire people you have no right to hire.

Who are so good it makes you nervous.

Who force everyone to step up their game.

Always level up 🦾

3: Create a culture of urgency

Nothing is more powerful than a group of people making every day count 🔥⚡️🚨

4: Make sure no one gets blocked

You’re paying good people good money.

Make sure they don’t get stuck!

Demotivating for them 🤦

Disastrous for the bottom line.