Starter Story - The 5-step recipe to $1M

3 min read

Hey guys - happy Thursday.

Yesterday, someone emailed me this:

“How to become millionaire?”

That’s it. That was the whole email.

I HATE these emails with a fiery passion.

Emails like these imply that success is about money (it's not) and that there's some "checklist" to a $1M business.

To take out my rage, I’m going to actually answer this question.

Once and for all. And then we’re never going to speak on it again.

The answer? One word: focus.

If you don’t believe me, then go to google and type in “Bill gates focus”

Focus doesn’t just create millionaires, it creates billionaires :)

So... in 3 minutes, I’m going to share with you my 5-step recipe for focus:

(aka "deep work")

Step 1. Switch your environment

Nobody is born with focus.

In fact, when I was younger, I was diagnosed with ADD.

I believe focus is something I have to "turn on".

The best way to turn it on?

Shock your system by switching your environment.

For me, it’s the coffee shop one block from my house. This is the ONLY place I get deep work done.

My workday consists of:

• 2-5 hours of focused, deep work from a new environment

• 19-22 hours of distraction, multi-tasking, sleep, etc (aka "life")

To focus, FIND your focus environment:

Do it from the library, gym, coworking space, basement, from your car! - it doesn't matter...

Step 2. Eliminate ALL distractions

Seems obvious, right?

But... have you really done ALL of these:

1. Turn off your phone (actually OFF)
2. Turn ON your siteblocker
3. Block Twitter, YouTube, etc etc
4. Whenever you find yourself checking some other website BLOCK IT!!!
5. Quit all the chat apps (iMessage, Telegram, Discord, Slack, etc)
6. Turn on DO NOT DISTURB (dont allow a SINGLE notification)
7. Close out all your extra tabs
8. Unplug your external monitor (no multitasking)
9. Block physical visual distractions (at the coffee shop, position yourself staring at the wall rather than the door)

If you do all of these before your next deep work session, you'll be a machine.

Step 3. Prioritize

Sure, you could spend 4 hours/day focused on getting faster at Wordle, but that will earn you a whopping $0.

You must prioritize the biggest needle-moving tasks - and get them done with your most precious hours of focused energy.

But... how to prioritize?

For me, this is simple.

Answer these two questions:

1. What is my MIT? (the "most important thing", this often feels big and scary)
2. What is something I need to do right now that will take 5 minutes?

Then put together your todo list as follows:

#1 - the 5-minute thing
#2 - the MIT

Why?

Get the easy quick thing done. It’ll give you some momentum and make the big scary thing a little easier to get started on.

If you don't get the "scary" things done, then you should stop reading this.

Step 4. Block out 2 hours

I don’t think you can get in the zone with anything less than a 30 minute session.

Flow state really starts at minute 30.

Here’s what my two hours looks like for me:

• 0 to 30 min: “This is hard, I want to check Twitter”
• 30 min to 1hr: “This is getting easier”
• 1 to 2hr: “I am a machine!! A productivity GOD”
• 2hr+: “This is hard, I want to check Twitter”

If you can do 3 hours of deep work, you are a BEAST.

Step 5. Every day

If you think you'll be a millionaire overnight, then please unsubscribe from my newsletter.

A successful business is built slowly, brick-by-brick, over time.

I’ve never met a successful founder who didn’t work on their startup every day.

(even if it’s just for 15 minutes)

Two hours of deep work, every day, will change your life.

Do this for at least 30 days, and I promise you’ll make more progress than you would typically in a year!

If you’re serious about focus, then you should consider joining Deep30 - our deep work challenge and private accountability service at Starter Story.

How it works: You do 2 hours of deep work, every day alongside hundreds of other people cheering you on and giving you feedback.

We track your progress and hold you accountable along the way.

And you'll change your life in the process.

Click HERE to learn more about that.

(for serious builders only)

Keep shipping!

Pat from Starter Story

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Starter Story - The 5-step recipe to $1M

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