Success is not $1B but $1M

jasonleow  •  29 Jan 2022   •    
Screenshot

What’s better than a 1000-person company making $1B profit per year?

A 1-person company making $1M profit a year.

Truth is, running a huge company is stressful. A 1000 strong one, with investors and a board to manage? Petrifying. To me, at least. Sure, you’re creating jobs, contributing to the economy and your community. That can be fulfilling in itself. But you’re responsible for everyone’s livelihoods. Their families and parents that your employees support depend on you. That feels like a huge burden if you ask me.

You can run a company solo but still work with or purchase products and services from other freelancers, small businesses, and suppliers. You can still can make a difference to the community.

But who wouldn’t want more money, you might ask? Your net worth from a $1B company might be awesome. 5% share would give you $500M - that’s a nice chunk of cash. I can imagine this $1B definition of success to work for some, but not me. It’s not about money for me. In fact, I’ve probably overreached if I get to $500M or $1B. It was never about the money even if it plays an important part. Money is an enabler. To enable time and creative freedom. That’s what I truly value. Managing a huge company is unlikely to give you that.

A blank calendar > a full bank account

We hear these billionaire success stories of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk and think that that’s the high watermark of success. We think that even if we don’t realistically believe we can become like them. But success is arbitrary. There’s 7.9B possible definitions of success on planet Earth, as many as there are humans. A different definition of success from the mainstream narrative is possible, I believe. And here’s the thing: Not everyone wants the public life of a big-ass CEO, even if they were given that opportunity, even if society looks up to them. But I can imagine more people would love to run a 1-person company making $1M, and have time and freedom to spend with their families, pursue their hobbies.

Besides, the tools to enable people to achieve their own version of success while staying 1-person small, have arrived. Automation (e.g. Zapier) is now possible for a solo founder and small companies. Remote work had gone mainstream and global, and platforms like Upwork lets any entrepreneur hire freelancers and virtual assistants on a project basis.

Companies in the SaaS/tech/web/indie hacker space are just the sort that can best achieve that. Easier to automate to be 1-person. Little to no upfront capital costs. Operational costs are usually low. Often can be 90+% profit.

That’s why I’m bullish on 1-person $1M companies. The conditions are now ripe for that.

Or you can be lazy (lol) and be a 1-person company making $100K a year. That’s plenty for most of us. Certainly for me.

But one can dream.

Comments

@ZaneDickens stole your reply re: 100k and weaved it into the post

jasonleow  •  29 Jan 2022, 3:00 am

Discover more

Sourced from other writers across Lifelog

Ooops we couldn't find any related post...