Ben Sampson Headshot

Hey, I'm Ben!

I build, buy, and invest in businesses.

I've had 2 successful exits. Way more failures.

I send one action packed email a week called a 1x1x1 covering crazy cool businesses I spot, updates on what we're building and buying, and lessons from the journey of an entrepreneur. Ā 

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Ben's 1x1x1 - History for happiness - March 27, 2026 šŸš€

For those of you that are new here, every week I send what I call a 1x1x1.
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One thought from my week.
One interesting find/tool from my week.
One image from my life.

Let's dive in šŸ‘‡

Thought from the week

History is undefeated.

I meet with a lot of founders and lately there’s a theme:

AI is coming for their lunch, the economy is weird, politics are…politics, and the world feels like it’s held together with duct tape and vibes.

They’re walking around like a personal thunderstorm follows them everywhere.

Cloud. Lightning. Occasional internal monologue of doom.

When that happens, I try to get them to zoom out.

Like…way out.

I love history, especially US history.
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I'm currently reading Undaunted Courage, a book all about Lewis and Clark trekking across the U.S. when ā€œGoogle Mapsā€ was just a compass that may or may not work.

And let me tell you…things were spicy back then.

  • People openly hated each other (not just in comment sections)
  • Duels were a legitimate conflict resolution strategy
  • Corruption? Everywhere. Like glitter. Impossible to get rid of
  • Someone sneezes... half the town is gone in a week
  • If you made it to 40, Andrew Hubberman would be like ā€œwow elite longevity protocolā€

And this was only 200 years ago.

Not the Dark Ages. Not cavemen.

Your great-great-great-great-grandparents were out there raw dogging existence.

No antibiotics. No HVAC. No Uber Eats.

Just vibes, dysentery, and a dream.

Reading stuff like that is honestly thrilling.

But more than that it’s grounding.

Because it smacks you in the face (in a good way) with this realization:

We are living in the greatest time in human history.

Is everything perfect?

Obviously not.

We’ve got problems. Big ones.

AI, geopolitics, economic cycles, Costco ran out of organic almond butter, all of it.

But here’s the thing…

We have always had problems.

And historically? They were way worse.

Like ā€œmight die on a Tuesday because someone coughed near youā€ worse.

Some of the happiest people I know read history.

And I don’t think that’s random.

Because when you regularly zoom out across centuries, today looks less like chaos…

and more like a miracle with WiFi.

So if you’ve got that little rain cloud hovering over you right now, try this:

Pick up a history book.

Throw on the Hard Core History podcast.

Watch something like Inca civilization on Nat Geo (my wife and I are halfway through the series and yes, I’m aware of how old that makes us sound).

Perspective is powerful.

And history is the fastest way I know to get it.

Plus, worst case scenario, you learn that no matter how stressful your week is…

…at least no one challenged you to a duel at 6am.

Interesting Tool/Find

My buddy Jordan put me onto Mobbin and I’ve been going down a full-blown design rabbit hole ever since.

If you’re building anything, web, mobile, spaceship control panel, it’s basically cheat codes for good taste.

And in a world where design matters more than ever (because attention spans are now measured in milliseconds), this thing is wildly useful.

It’s like:

ā€œOh, you want a clean onboarding flow?ā€

Here are 47 of them. All better than yours.

ā€œOh, pricing page?ā€

Boom. Take your pick. Don’t reinvent the wheel, just make your wheel slightly cooler.

Honestly feels like stealing… but legal.

One thing I did notice though…

Mobbin hasn’t reached out to feature Luna’s design yet.

Which is surprising.

But I’m sure the invite just got lost in the mail.

Image from my life

Last week I made the drive to Truckee to go ski with my 84 year old grandfather. He's still tearing it up!

See you all next week!