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What I do before I start a new project

What I do before I start a new project

Jay Yang
August 04, 2024

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Whenever I start a new project, I like to do 4 things:

Define “success”
Set anti-goals
Napkin math - what does it take to get there?
Minimum viable action - never leave without taking one action toward the goal

Let me break it down further:

#1: Define “success”

When I was younger, my dad used to play The Gambler by Kenny Rogers in the car. One of my favorite lyrics from the song is:

“You've got to know when to hold 'em, Know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away, And know when to run.”

Most people start projects without a clear definition of success. But if you don’t know what success means to you, how do you know when to fold your cards?

When most people set goals, they say something like this:

“I want to be rich.”

But what does that actually mean? How much is rich? Rich by when?

When I’m considering a new project, I try to set clear, measurable goals:

“I want to make $5,000/month by January.”

That way, when January comes around, it’s clear if you should continue the project, or quit and move on.

I like to set 2 types of goals:

First base goal - if we hit this, things went well
Home run goal - we’d be hyped AF to hit this

#2: Set Anti-Goals

“What if your dream was to be a musician. And guess what - you did it! But while you’re touring the world, you gain weight, get addicted to drugs, your marriage is in shambles, and your kids don’t recognize you....you won the battle but lost the war.”

Shaan Puri

Anti-goals are about making sure you don’t win the battle but lose the war.

Basically, you gotta write down the things you don’t want to happen along the way.

Example: I don’t want to spend more than 30 minutes a day on this new project.

#3: Napkin math

Say your goal is a million dollars. You can either sell a $1 product to 1 million people. Or you can create a $10,000 product and sell it to 100 people.

Napkin math is meant for you to brainstorm different ways to hit your goal - and determine if your goal is actually realistic to hit.

I like to start by asking these questions:

Who do I want to serve?
What and how much can I charge?
How can I reach my ideal customers?
Who can I reach out to for help?

#4: Minimum viable action

Lastly, never leave a brainstorming session without taking ONE action.

This is key. It’s about building momentum.

No more research. No more planning.

Just doing.

(Things like talking to a customer or building a prototype.)

What’s the smallest action you can take right NOW to get closer to your goal?

See you next Sunday,

Jay Yang

Ps. h/t Shaan Puri for the inspo on this framework

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