📖 Aftertaste

I stumbled upon “Million Dollar Weekend” after hearing Noah Kagan discuss it on Ali Abdal’s podcast. His motto, “NOW, Not How,” resonated deeply with me, sparking my curiosity to dive into Kagan’s insights further. The book is engaging and accessible, packed with practical tips and even examples of email templates to use when starting a business or expanding your network.

While some personal stories felt out of place among the sales-focused content, as someone in marketing, I can vouch for the effectiveness of Kagan’s strategies. “Million Dollar Weekend” offers actionable advice and real-life examples, making it a valuable resource for people who want to start their business.

🎯 Key Takeaways

1. Use the motto NOW, Not How. When it comes to being an entrepreneur, it’s very import just start doing things instead of simply dreaming about it. Successful people just start.
2. Don’t be scared to sell things. Intentionally developing your Ask muscle is a REQUIREMENT for entrepreneurial success.
3. Always have a measurable goal, a KPI, your freedom number to achieve things.

💜 My Favourite Quotes

1. Once you reframe rejection as something desirable, the act of asking becomes a power all its own.
2. Small EXPERIMENTS, repeated over time, are the recipe for transformation in business, and life.
3. Most people never pick up the phone, most people never ask. And that’s what separates, sometimes, the people that do things from the people that just dream about them. You gotta act. And you gotta be willing to fail.—Steve Jobs
4. If you commit to nothing, you’ll be distracted by everything.
   
   

📝 Summary & Notes

1. Why you need to start your business

• Business is just a never-ending cycle of starting and trying new things, asking whether people will pay for those things, and then trying it again based on what you’ve learned.
• Business is an amazing opportunity to learn about yourself, play with ideas, solve your own problems, help other people, and get paid all the while.
• Focus above all else on being a starter, an experimenter, a learner.
• Every experiment has within it the potential of unforeseen rewards that can change your life.
• The challenge of your business—and your life—is designing a system that optimizes for your overall happiness.
• We all get into entrepreneurship to fulfill our goals of personal freedom and joy. But your version of success is unique from that of every other entrepreneur’s, which means you get to design your own path.
• Designing the life of your dreams is where you truly become rich. So keep moving!
  
  

2. Top tips when starting your business

• Use the motto NOW, Not How.
  Write this email to your friends or family member:
  Hey [first name], I’m trying to come up with some business ideas right now.You know me well, so I was wondering what kind of business you think I’d be good at?
• Start by choosing a short-term monthly revenue goal—your Freedom Number—and make it a number that doesn’t scare you.
• Don’t be scared of selling stuff. ”What’s the worst that can happen?” People say no. Who cares! And the upside of making sales is unlimited.”
• Intentionally developing your Ask muscle is a REQUIREMENT for entrepreneurial success
• The trick is to desensitize yourself to the pain by repeatedly exposing yourself to it. Embrace the discomfort—actively seeking it out—and use it as your compass.
• PRO TIP: Be persistent. I want you to believe that almost every no you get can eventually become a yes. Persistence will reveal that most noes are actually a “not now.”
• PRO TIP: Follow Up! Follow Up! Follow Up! Studies show that if you initially get a no, your follow-up ask is TWICE as likely to get a yes.
• PRO TIP: Selling is helping. If you believe your product or service improves the lives of your customers, sales is just education. You’re helping people out
• Solve people’s problems. Customers don’t care about your ideas; they care about whether you can solve their problems. And you should not build your idea into a business if you don’t know with 100 percent certainty that it’s a solution your customers will pay for.
• Leaders start with the customer and work backwards.
• Business creation should always be a conversation!
  
  

3. How to find a business idea?

The crucial first step toward entrepreneurship is to study your own unhappiness and to think of solutions (aka business opportunities) for you to sell.

• What is one thing this morning that irritated me?
  What is one thing on my to-do list that’s been there over a week?
  What is one thing that I regularly fail to do well?
  What is one thing I wanted to buy recently only to find out that no one made it?

Google Trends and Facebook Ads can answer those questions. They’re great tools that help evaluate the size and growth potential of your target market.

Validation is finding three customers in forty-eight hours who will give you money for your idea.

To come up with your unique viewpoint, ask yourself a few questions:

• What is something everyone thinks is true—but you think is wrong?
  What is something nobody in your target market is talking about—but should be?
  What are the biggest mistakes people in your market are making—but are totally blind to?
  
  

4. Marketing tips

• Ali is an absolute genius at this process. His videos—which are almost always titled “How I …” rather than “How to …”—follow him as he guides viewers through how he studies for medical school entrance exams or takes notes on his iPad Pro, or how he learned to type really fast. Note: Be the guide, not the guru. Start with “how I…”
• Five exact questions to create your own marketing plan:

1. What is your one goal for this year?
2. Who exactly is your customer and where can you find them?
3. What is one marketing activity you can double down on?
4. How can you delight your first 100 customers?

• Ask your customers how they found out about your product. Here is an email example:

Hey Maria,
Thank you so much for being a customer.
Where’s the one specific place you’d expect to learn about my product?

• Find what works and double down on it; find what doesn’t work and kill it.
• The biggest growth lever in business is customer retention and referrals.
• Make your customers happy.

Ask one customer: “What is one thing I can do today that will make you twice as happy with us?”

5. Have a proper goal

Commit to your first 100—whatever it is for you—with complete disregard for your results.

• If you want to start a YouTube channel, publish 100 videos.
• If you’re doing a newsletter, write 100 emails.
• If you’re starting a new hobby like chess or guitar, practice for 100 days.
• If you’re creating a business, directly pitch 100 customers.

Just focus on that first 100. Don’t worry about whether people are watching or liking or engaging or buying or following—just put it out. For the first 100, it’s about your doing it, rather than anyone else’s liking it.