Code, content, capital, and labor is the order of leverage when starting. Labor, capital, content, and code is the order of leverage when scaling. The complete opposite.

When you are starting, you have no money, no team, no audience. What you have is time and the ability to build. So you write code, you build the thing yourself. Then you create content to attract people who think like you. Content builds audience, audience builds network, network creates opportunities. Only after that do you deploy capital and hire.

But once the machine is running, the order flips entirely. At scale, the highest-leverage move is getting the right people in the right seats. Then deploying capital to accelerate what's already working. Content becomes a retention and brand tool rather than an acquisition engine. And code? Code becomes commodity. Any competent team can build features. The scarce resource shifts from technical ability to judgment about what to build and who to build it with.

Most founders get stuck because they keep using starting-phase leverage at scaling-phase problems. They're still writing all the code themselves when they should be hiring. Still grinding content when they should be deploying capital. The inversion is uncomfortable because it means the skills that got you here won't get you there.

Three developmental stages. You have to earn each one in order.

Speed comes first. What you can do today, do not leave to tomorrow. Faster is better in almost every circumstance. Accelerate your decision making, your execution. “Time is the denominator.” Early on, the bottleneck is never quality, it's volume. You haven't done enough reps to even know what good looks like yet. So move fast, make mistakes, and compress the learning curve.

Iteration comes second. Once you're moving fast, the game shifts to learning from what you're doing. Track revenue, usage, and iterations early as your KPIs. Most of the learning happens when you actually do it. We overestimate the knowledge we need to start. The key insight: startups are more like science than athletics. You need to follow the trail wherever it leads, not cling to a fixed vision.

Consistency comes last. This is where most people want to start, but it's actually the final stage. Consistency without speed and iteration is just doing the wrong thing reliably. But once you've found what works through rapid iteration, consistency is what compounds it. The execution is consistency. Simple things done over a long time horizon achieve the outcome you desire.

Compress hard, then decompress completely. No steady-state productivity theater.

Good operators compress time while having more constraints. The goal is not to work at a steady 60% all day every day, it's to work at 100% in compressed bursts and then genuinely rest. Not “rest” where you're still checking messages and half-thinking about work. Actual decompression. Go outside, breathe fresh air, feel the grass, sun, trees, listen to the birds, and just be there.

This isn't laziness disguised as a framework. It's physics. The abundance of feeling good happens in flow state, and you can't access flow if your nervous system is in constant low-grade activation. We've massively increased the amount of context switching in our lives through technology, which increases the chance of dissonance. The opposite of that, mind and body in sync with one task, is where the real output comes from.

Peace is more desirable than pleasure. And pleasure without sacrifice and effort is detrimental. The compression creates the conditions for the decompression to actually restore you. Without the sprint, the rest is just idle time. Without the rest, the sprint burns you out. The cycle is the unit, not either phase alone.

Every quarter, sit down and grade yourself honestly across five domains. Not goals. Domains. The point is that life is interconnected and optimizing one domain at the expense of others creates invisible debt.

Start with one question: How are the vibes? Are they off? If yes, dig into why before looking at metrics.

Work

• What were the three most significant accomplishments this quarter and what role did I play?
• On a scale of 1-10, how well did I manage my workload and deadlines?
• Did I feel fulfilled and challenged by my work? How could I increase these feelings?
• How effective was my leadership and decision-making?
• How well did I handle conflict or challenges, and what could I improve?

Wealth

• What was my biggest financial win this quarter, and how can I repeat it?
• How effectively did I adhere to my budgeting plans?
• How did my investments perform? Do I need to make adjustments?
• How comfortable am I with my current financial security?
• What are my financial goals for next quarter, and what steps should I take?

Health

• What new healthy habits did I adopt, and which ones need work?
• How would I rate my overall physical health and fitness?
• How did my nutritional choices affect my energy and wellbeing?
• How well did I manage stress and prioritize mental health?
• What specific health goals do I want to set for next quarter?

Peace

• What activities or practices contributed most to my sense of inner peace?
• How would I rate my overall sense of peace and contentment?
• What were the biggest obstacles to achieving peace, and how can I manage them?
• How successful was I at maintaining a positive mindset in difficult situations?
• What peace-promoting practices do I want to incorporate next quarter?

Relationships

• What were the most significant developments in my relationships, and how did I contribute?
• How effective was I at maintaining and nurturing my relationships?
• Did I manage conflicts well? How can I improve?
• How well did I communicate and express my needs and boundaries?
• What specific relationship goals do I want to set for next quarter?

One question that cuts through everything: Are you being dragged or driven? Dragged by insecurity, listening to what everyone else wants out of you, or driven by your innate desires?

Ship simple things that work. Don't over-engineer.

Life is actually simple in many ways. We just get confused and society invites us to be the worst versions of ourselves. If for the next five years I work six days a week for ten to twelve hours a day, write down the day before what needs to be done, check in quarterly, work out, spend time with friends and family at night, and only eat whole foods, I will be rich, fit, and very likely to be happy. There are so many simple things I could add. Sauna and ice plunge are the perfect example. Both are the most straightforward activities, but they aren't easy.

The hard part is not knowing what to do. The hard part is cutting. Be ruthless about what you ignore. Time, energy, and resources are so precious. You have to be ferocious about cutting your priorities, more than you realize and certainly more than is comfortable. You can only deeply commit to a few things. One or two? Maybe three?

Every pretty good, sorta nice, kinda fun thing you abandon is like shedding a weighted vest that lets you move at top speed. You were so busy focusing on how much you could carry, you never realized you could run this fast.

Just cutting out the vices would make 80% of the progress. No ultra-processed foods, no caffeine, no alcohol, no gambling. The simplest interventions produce the majority of the results. The remaining 20% is optimization, and most people never even get through the first 80%.