A framework for evaluating any business or project across three dimensions: Knowledge (technical skills and market understanding), Reputation (relationships and social proof), and Wealth (positive cash flow). The best opportunities improve all three at once, though that's rare to find.
When considering an initiative or a business or whatever, I usually look for 3 things that can affect me. It can affect my knowledge, my reputation, and my wealth. I'm looking to improve all 3 of those things. Knowledge could be technical knowledge, like knowing how to do things that the Greeks know how to do. It could be, and this is actually pretty important, market knowledge, understanding how people behave and what they're willing to buy and how that matters economically. Reputation is super important. It's going to be the relationships and the the way that you're seen within the market, basically the social proof that you can be generating as a result of that particular initiative that's going to be part of your brand later. And finally, it is important, I think, a good North Star to making sure that whatever you're doing is also generating positive cash flow. Uh, this can be in the form of direct cash, it can be in the form of cost dissipation. There are multiple ways for it to be creating economic gains for you. So when you combine those three in any initiative, —where to increase your knowledge, increase your aptitude, and increase your wealth? I find that situation is tough.
