Everything is Adjustable

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When I started my first project, I thought if it didn’t win, I was a loser.

(Spoiler: it didn’t win)
It was a time zone tracker. Kind of cool. Kind of useful. Totally forgettable.

And here’s what I didn’t know at the time:
Just because something gets used doesn’t mean it gets paid for.
Just because you build it doesn’t mean it matters.
Just because you think it’s a problem doesn’t mean it’s a real one.

This is what I now call entrepreneurial physics:
There are immutable laws you only learn by face-planting.
It’s not about getting it “so good” that people buy.
It’s about picking a problem that hurts bad enough for people to pay to make it go away.

Here are some of the steps I’ve figured out.

Stage 1: Delusional Confidence

Everyone starts with the same necessary lie:
“I’m better than I am.”

Why?
Because if you weren’t delusional, you’d never start.
There’s zero evidence to support your dream at the beginning. You have to invent it.
Confidence > Competence… at the start.

That lie gets you in the game. But it won’t keep you there.

Stage 2: Money = Everything

Next, you swing hard in the other direction.

You need evidence.
You think, “If I can just make money, I win.”

This is the trap.
You trade freedom for more freedom and end up with… less freedom.

For me, that looked like launching a college consulting business.
High-paying, prestige, all the things I thought I wanted.
But I felt like I had 10 bosses.
I was always stressed and always behind.
Making good money but resenting the game.

Turns out: chasing money when you’re already miserable just makes you rich and miserable.

Stage 3: Risk = The Toll for Change

Here’s an uncomfortable truth:
No change happens without risk.
Risk is the price of change.

And unless you control every variable (read: you're God), change means stepping into uncertainty.

The problem? I have a low risk tolerance.
But I also want big outcomes.
So the game becomes: how do I lower the relative risk enough to keep playing?

Let’s break it down:

• A VC firm betting $1M? That’s Tuesday.

• Me taking out a $1M loan? That’s existential.

So what can I do?
I could break it into $10K/year.
Play longer.
Get smaller wins, compound them.
Grow your chip stack.

Because the bigger the stack, the bigger the hands you can play.

Stage 4: Stack Your Wins, Change the Game

Entrepreneurship is a compounding sport.

You snowball skills, experience, assets.
And the rules change as you level up.

The same $10K problem that used to scare you? Now it’s a Tuesday.
You trade up: better problems, better outcomes.

But here’s the paradox:

You need time with a problem to get the outcome.
But too much time with the wrong one and you stall.
So how do you pick?

I’m still learning. But this is what I know:
Every level has a new game.
And sometimes, the smartest move is to switch games.

You’re not quitting.
You’re cashing in your chips…
…so you can play at the next table.

TL;DR

• You will fail. That’s part of the physics.

• Delusional confidence gets you started.

• Money is a good servant, a terrible master.

• Risk is required, but risk tolerance can be managed.

• Entrepreneurship compounds. Stack wins.

• Switching games isn’t quitting - it’s leveling up.

Play long enough, and the game changes.
Play smart enough, and you do too.

What’s Next?

I am playing my own game.

I am stacking lessons in product, design, marketing to build GolfWink.

I’ve got a good feeling about this one…

Stay productive,

Ben

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