Pull to Eject

Every day 1,700 new millionaires are minted in the US.

Every. Single. Day.

What do they have in common? Most of the new millionaires work for themselves.

It doesn't take rich parents to reach the top tax bracket; the majority of millionaires say that they built their fortunes themselves. A 2021 survey of U.S. millionaires by Ramsey Solutions found that only 3% inherited more than a million dollars from their parents, and 79% had no inheritance at all.

Entrepreneurs also stand to gain in the globalized economy as Bloomberg notes that for those working in tech and finance "the rewards for success can be huge." And every business is a tech business if done correctly.

Add in a recent uptick in small businesses survival rates and you might have an even better chance of breaking the seven-figure barrier.

Launch Key subscribers know, that despite the narrative, the American Dream is alive and well. Go add to yours.

Now go launch something 🚀 

Modern Tools

I caught up with an old friend recently and he laughed about how I used analog tools while selling digital solutions. My clients were interested in the grid lined notebooks I used to take notes in the 90’s. (They’re still available at Levenger).

Later I’d transpose them into a digital format and share with team members so everyone had the same foundational understanding. It always cleared up client change requests. I didn’t treat the digital files special and shared them via email, then Word and later Evernote or Slack.

Somewhere in the 2010’s I stopped hand writing altogether, thinking that the technography of direct typing in Evernote was better.

But it wasn’t.

Everyone on my team sat in meetings typing away on their laptops (or multi-tasking ;-) and something was lost. The human interaction was just not as good.

It’s still not.

In the last couple of years, I have come back to hand writing notes. Journal books in meetings, rewritten and edited on the laptop later. Meeting engagement is improved and I fill in much better details when I rewrite the notes. You will too.

Old School Wisdom

Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, organized his honest blogs into the best seller The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers.

Horowitz offers essential advice on building and running a startup—practical wisdom for managing the toughest problems business school doesn’t cover.

Free Knowledge

I caught up on a few podcasts on my drive to the mountains and the Sarah Miller story of eggcartons.com is crazy good.

From high school truancy, to paying her sister to take her SAT, and the good fortune of a wealthy benefactor who gave her a job and told her to go to grad school. Her story of grit and determination to find a boring multi-million dollar business that she could buy with no money down is worth your time.

Shaan Puri uncovers the total hustle of Miller and her hero’s journey is a fantastic reminder of the possible.

Visual Crapshoot

Do you know people who should read the Launch Key? You know what to do