Weekly 40 Hour Kit by Fabiano Abreu Ott

The journey of growing your business without grinding 24/7.

40 Hour Kit: Build a Great Company, Not a Big One.

(Here for the subject line? Find it in the ✨ Recommendation section)

Hey Reader,

A good friend of mine has a YouTube channel with 70k+ subs. Over the last decade, he uploaded more than 380 videos. Recently, he told me about a mindset shift he had: he would upload far fewer videos, but each of them would be world-class. World-class in topic, research, recording, and final cut.
His newest video which took him months to produce got more views than his last 10 videos - combined.

What's your slow, but world-class product you're offering? (In a startup world where fast pace is often considered the most important feature of a founder.)

Here's your 40 Hour Kit for the week:

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💡 Entrepreneurial Insight

Don't just sell features. Instead, paint the whole market for the customer (competitors, pros/cons, story) so you help them decide. Positioning should be a buying aid.

Based on entrepreneur and best-selling author on market positioning April Dunford, on The Knowledge Project podcast.

⚖️ Balance Hack

Sort your recurring tasks into four buckets:

• €10 work (inbox, formatting - busywork)
• €100 work (meta-work that feels productive)
• €1,000 work (your unique skills but with no leverage)
• €10K work (high-leverage, compounding, moves you toward the life you actually want).

Then schedule and protect one daily €10K hour for a single €10K task, and automate/delegate/remove the €10 stuff.

​Based on Khe Hy, former BlackRock Managing Director and founder of RadReads (a framework trusted by 36k+ executives).

🚀 Challenge

Fast-forward 12 months and assume your big current bet (a launch, a feature, a channel) has flopped. Write down every reason why it failed, the harsh ones especially. Then fix the top 2 this week.

The trick is the grammar: assuming it already failed brings up risks a normal "what could go wrong?" never does.

Based on research psychologist Gary Klein, whose "premortem" method was praised by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman in 'Thinking, Fast and Slow'.​

✨ Recommendation

Gumroad founder Sahil Lavingia on how to build a great company, not a big one:

1. Start with community, then find the problem - earn trust first, build later.
2. Build as little as possible - do one thing well; automate or outsource the rest.
3. Sell to your first 100 customers by hand - educate, don't convince.
4. Charge from day one - profit is oxygen for businesses; it buys you energy, not just money.
5. Build the house you want to live in - define your values loudly; the right people find you.

Based on Gumroad founder Sahil Lavingia in 'The Minimalist Entrepreneur' (who famously bought back his VC shares to build a sustainable $10M+ ARR business).

❓ Question for you to ask another Entrepreneur

If last week's calendar were the only evidence, what would a stranger conclude you actually value, and would you agree with them?

Have a great and productive week!

-Fabiano

Grow together with other founders - without sacrificing your lifestyle.

​Join the Priority List for the 40 Hour Entrepreneur Club.​

​Read past 40 Hour Kits here.