Ben's 1x1x1 - 5 random thoughts for your Friday - August 21, 2026 🚀
For those of you that are new here, every week I send what I call a 1x1x1.
One thought from my week. One interesting find/tool from my week. One image from my life.
Let’s dive in 👇
Thought from the week
Here are 5 random thoughts from my week (aka the first things that came to mind after downing a cappuccino):
Health is wealth.
I threw my back out. Again.
God, I’m getting old.
It crippled everything: sleep, work, fitness, mood, the whole operating system went down because one lumbar vertebra decided to unionize.
This is your reminder to stretch and lift 10% lighter than your ego wants to.
SaaS multiples have steadily climbed over the last few months.
Turns out these companies are worth more than some code and a contract that says prices increase 5% annually until the sun explodes.
If you bought the dip or simply held on while everyone else was having a panic attack, congrats.
Good questions
I speak with 5–10 business owners a week.
The highest-leverage question for an owner who feels stuck is:
“What is the limiting factor in the business right now?”
Followed immediately by:
“Why aren’t you spending 80% of your time fixing it?”
Usually the answer is some version of “because Slack had notifications.”
Skills
One of the highest-value skills I’ve built over the last 24 months is becoming mildly decent at Meta Ads.
Nothing glamorous.
Just learning how to make the internet’s surveillance machine send customers your way.
It’s paid dividends for the last six months.
I grabbed a tea at 1:00 a.m. and got this little gem:
“One who brings happiness to others will find it.”
True.
In business, relationships, health, and probably Meta Ads: what you put in is usually what you get out.
Except for my back.
I put in one awkward bend and got a three-day outage.
Interesting find
This Is What Running a $2B AI Startup Looks Like
This is what running a $2B AI startup looks like. Fascinating!
Image from my life
We were very stoked on the waterfall during our bike ride.