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 👇

Thought from the week

“When do you throw in the towel?”

Honestly… this is the question that haunts every founder more than their bank balance.

We all want to be seen as gritty and persistent “I never gave up!”
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But sometimes the real power move is saying: “You know what? This idea sucks.”

I’ve been there. Staring at a whiteboard like it’s going to whisper the answer.

Sometimes, it doesn’t.

Most people hang on too long.

They're stuck in the Sunk Cost Swamp.

Knee-deep in time, money, and emotional baggage, telling themselves it’ll turn around if they just hustle harder.
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In many cases, it doesn’t.

Here are the 6 questions I use to decide if I’m riding a rocketship… or dragging a dead horse:

1. Am I actually enjoying this?​
   Not can I enjoy it. Not will I enjoy it when we hit $1M MRR. I mean, right now. Is this fun or soul-crushing?
2. If I got my time back, what would I do with it?​
   And if the answer is “literally anything else,” congrats, you’ve already made your decision.
3. Is the market hot? Or am I selling fax machines in 2025?​
   You don’t want to be the best ice salesman in a snowstorm.
4. Is it this idea that’s bad… or just this version of it?​
   Sometimes you don’t need to quit. You need to zig while everyone else is zagging.
5. Can I afford this gamble?​
   Money, time, sanity. What’s your runway, and what are you really putting on the line?
6. What does “keep going” vs. “pull the plug” look like, in concrete terms?​
   Set your own tripwire. If you hit X milestone by Y date, great. If not, time to peace out.

Run your idea through this mental gauntlet.

If it survives congrats, you’ve got something worth chasing.
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If not, don’t sweat it.

Quitting isn’t failure. Staying stuck is.

Interesting find/tool of the week

I’m mildly obsessed with riding bikes.

Like, “plan vacations around trail maps” obsessed.

But for years I kept drinking out of those cheap plastic bike bottles that feel like they were made from recycled Tupperware and regret.

One day, mid-sip, I had the thought: "Wait… is this thing slowly killing me?"

Enter: the Bivo bottle. Stainless steel. Sleek. Feels like if a Tesla and a Nalgene had a baby.

Hydration, upgraded.

Image from my life

My wife and I got away last weekend just the two of us.
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The resort we stayed at had lots of "Ghost Junipers".
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These are the skeletons of dead Juniper trees and often remain standing for decades due to the durability of juniper wood (which is full of natural oils and rot-resistant).
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Needless to say our evening walks were pretty epic with these things around.

See you all next week!