7 principles to build a pretty darn good business (in just 6 months): No Co-Founder

The myth: You need a co-founder to succeed.
The truth: 65% of startups fail due to co-founder conflict.

What most founders miss:

• Solo founders make decisions 3x faster
• Solo founders pivot without emotional politics
• Solo founders keep 100% ownership and control

Hire specialists who solve specific problems.

Branding principles I know at 35, I wish I had known at 21: Consistency Creates Trust

Every touchpoint with your audience matters:

• Email signatures
• Team responses
• Customer calls
• Website copy

Reinforce your message constantly.

If you don’t know how to sell, you’ll never be wealthy.

Here are 7 principles that will help you master the art of sales: Do It Yourself First

Too many founders hire closers before they've built out a sales process.

You need to create your OWN script through trial and error, and only delegate once you can consistently close at 30%+ yourself.

You can't lead what you don't understand.

I make $1.1M/month working 4 hours a day.

But my greatest achievement isn't money – it's building a business that brings me peace.

Here's how to create yours: Optimize for Peace of Mind

The true measure of success: how well you sleep at night.

Most businesses are designed to maximize profit at the expense of your sanity.

Instead, ruthlessly:

• Eliminate people that create anxiety in your life
• Remove distractions that fragment your attention
• Delete tasks that don't move your business forward

I've fired clients worth $200,000 because they disrupted my peace.

Your mental clarity is worth more than any contract.

Mark Zuckerberg once said:

"The greatest risk in life is not taking one."

Here’s how to build a profitable one-person business (in 90 days): Most founders become prisoners—starting for freedom, but ending up with:

• 12-hour workdays
• Constant firefighting
• Zero time for themselves

True entrepreneurship is designing a system that works WITHOUT you.

Here’s how to do it:

Everyone with a laptop should earn $1,000,000 per year.

Sadly, most people don’t know where to start.

Here’s the playbook to build a 7-figure offer stack in the next 60 days: First, understand this:

Your offer stack is EVERYTHING. It’s the sequence that guides prospects through your funnel.

Most founders obsess over their product—but how you frame & structure your offer is what drives predictable, repeatable revenue.

Here’s everything you need to think about:

The cost of distraction is the life you could have lived.

If you suffer from a short attention span, read this.

My Deep Work routine: Block Sacred Hours

I protect 7am-11am for focused creation—no exceptions.

During these hours, my phone is off and I'm unreachable.

4 hours of deep work ALWAYS achieve more than 8-12 hours of shallow, distracted effort.

I’m obsessed with mental models.

But when I was young, I wasted years drinking, working way too hard, and optimizing for things that didn’t matter.

Learn from my mistakes.

16 mental models I wish I knew earlier: Wabi-Sabi

This Japanese concept celebrates the beauty in imperfection.

Always be authentic. Share the wins, losses, and everything in between.

Before my first business took off, I was drowning in $30K of debt and battling daily panic attacks.

That struggle was part of my journey.

Harsh truth:

Most leaders hire for skill when they should hire for character.

16 other leadership principles I know at 35 that I wish I had known at 21: 1. Paying A Sh*tty Salary Is Your Most Expensive Mistake

The real cost isn't $20K extra. It's $200K in lost opportunities when B-players fail to deliver.

2. If They Need To Be Micromanaged, You Hired Wrong

Great hires deliver without supervision. The rest drain your focus.

I'm 35.

Here are 41 short pieces of life advice:

1. Taste is the ultimate competitive advantage 2. The future belongs to founders who think like creators, and creators who think like founders.

3. Your personal brand is the greatest asset you'll ever build.

4. Entrepreneurs are intellectual athletes. If you want peak performance — workout, sleep well, eat clean.

The greatest director of our lifetime:

Christopher Nolan.

He's the man behind movies like Inception and Dunkirk.

And once said: "You're never going to learn something as profoundly as when it's purely out of curiosity."

8 storytelling secrets that made him a cinematic legend: Simplicity Over Complexity

Nolan starts with complex ideas. But he breaks them down to their “essence.”

Inception is a layered dreamscape with shifting realities. But at its core, the story is simple—plant an idea in someone’s mind.

Nolan on how he got the idea for the film:

Harsh truth:

Peace is not by chance but by choice.

Here’s how I designed my business for both happiness and freedom: While in Japan, snowboarding with friends, I realized something about business:

You need to loosen your grip.

If you're creating solid systems & a strong team, you need to let compounding work its magic.

That said, here’s how to optimize for freedom:

Steve Jobs once said:

"The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller."

Sadly, most people never learn how to tell a good story.

10 storytelling secrets that make you impossible to ignore: Never Rush

Poor pacing can kill a fantastic story.

Long-winded introductions bore readers/listeners, and rushing through key moments feels unsatisfying.

Instead, expand important moments & compress transitions.

Watch how Jobs does it:

The master of focus:

Cal Newport.

He has published 3 New York Times bestsellers, sold 2,000,000+ copies and has a PhD from MIT.

Yet, he refuses to work past 5:00pm.

Here's his Deep Work protocol for unstoppable productivity: But first, what actually is “Deep Work”?

It’s intense, distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive limits.

Those who master it create breakthroughs—for example, JK Rowling locked herself away for 6 months to finish Harry Potter.

Here’s Cal himself on Deep Work:

The richest people in 2026 will be ordinary people who master one skill:

Personal Branding.

9 founders who built empires with nothing but their story:

1. Emma Chamberlain Emma started as a casual vlogger sharing unfiltered stories that clicked with Gen Z.

Her content evolved into:

• Collabs with Louis Vuitton & Levis
• Launching Chamberlain Coffee—now a multi-million dollar brand

All built by being unapologetically herself.

YouTube is the most powerful platform on the planet.

Over the last 15 months, I’ve invested $100,000+ and 500+ hours into growing my channel to 144,000 subscribers.

Here’s the exact 10-step YouTube system I’d follow if I had to start over: Find Your Niche

Think Ikigai. Your content must sit at the intersection of:

• What you're skilled at & passionate about
• What people actually want

YouTube is massive.

If you're not targeting something specific, you'll get lost.

Every business grows in 5 phases.

Sadly, most founders never make it past phase 2.

Here's how to build automated wealth without burning out: I’ve gone from broke to building an automated empire in 3 years.

The journey followed these 5 phases:

• Phase 1: Foundation
• Phase 2: Systemization
• Phase 3: Delegation
• Phase 4: Automation
• Phase 5: Expansion

Most founders get stuck because they try to skip phases or do them all at once.

There’s never been an easier time in history to build a personal brand.

Sadly, most people think this takes years to achieve.

Here's my exact blueprint to grow and monetize any audience without sounding like a sellout: Most founders struggle with monetizing their personal brand.

It’s often because they never take the time to build a path to revenue.

My Content GPS solves this. It’s how I’ve turned attention into a predictable profit machine without feeling sales-y.

Let me break it down…

Sales is simple when you understand this secret:

The moment you start selling, you've lost.

Here's my system that makes people sell themselves: If you absolutely hate selling, I get it.

I used to be terrified of sales calls. Sweaty palms. Racing heart. The whole deal.

Now my team and I close without ever feeling like we're "selling."

Using a proven system I call “Pitch OS”.

How I travel 6 months a year (and grow 2 businesses simultaneously): Imagine having 4 systems that allow you to:

• Travel the world
• Build your dream life
• Scale your business effortlessly

All while controlling who you work with and what you work on.

But it wasn't always like this...

The greatest storyteller in human history:

Pixar.

They’re the creative geniuses behind Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Cars.

And in 2011, former employee Emma Coats revealed Pixar’s "22 Rules For Storytelling."

Here's how I used their frameworks to grow my YouTube by 583%: When most founders try to build a brand, they look at Louis Vuitton, Elon, or Nike.

Me? I look at Pixar.

Because while big brands sell status and tech icons sell ambition, Pixar does something far more powerful:

They make us care…