Rob Walling

But deciding what to work on, learning enough about it that you get to one of the frontiers of knowledge, and then noticing the knowledge gaps, to me, is a fundamental part of building something that other people will value and businesses will pay for.

But deciding what to work on, learning enough about it that you get to one of the frontiers of knowledge, and then noticing the knowledge gaps, to me, is a fundamental part of building something that other people will value and businesses will pay for.

It's extremely rare that someone gets so lucky that they enter a domain or a space or a vertical and they build something right from the start without learning enough about it to get to the frontiers of knowledge and then noticing the knowledge gaps. And they're right. It's kind of like trying to hit a bullseye on a dartboard.

It's extremely rare that someone gets so lucky that they enter a domain or a space or a vertical and they build something right from the start without learning enough about it to get to the frontiers of knowledge and then noticing the knowledge gaps. And they're right. It's kind of like trying to hit a bullseye on a dartboard.

Or it's kind of like trying to roll a particular number, a 57, on a 100-sided die. Maybe even a 500-sided die. They don't make those. I have a 100-sided die, and it's almost like a golf ball. So you roll it, and it just rolls forever. It's so much easier to roll 2D10s. But I digress.

Or it's kind of like trying to roll a particular number, a 57, on a 100-sided die. Maybe even a 500-sided die. They don't make those. I have a 100-sided die, and it's almost like a golf ball. So you roll it, and it just rolls forever. It's so much easier to roll 2D10s. But I digress.

The idea of you coming into a domain that you don't understand and seeing a huge gap without first getting the frontiers of knowledge and noticing those knowledge gaps is a one in a thousand, one in 10,000. This is the thing I see people try to shortcut and they don't try to shortcut it by learning and getting to the knowledge gaps faster. What they instead try to do is build a bunch of bulls**t

The idea of you coming into a domain that you don't understand and seeing a huge gap without first getting the frontiers of knowledge and noticing those knowledge gaps is a one in a thousand, one in 10,000. This is the thing I see people try to shortcut and they don't try to shortcut it by learning and getting to the knowledge gaps faster. What they instead try to do is build a bunch of bulls**t

and throw it against the wall to see what sticks, thinking that if they launch 100 or 1,000 products, that one of those is going to magically take off through sheer luck. And I think that's a terrible game plan. I hate relying on luck.

and throw it against the wall to see what sticks, thinking that if they launch 100 or 1,000 products, that one of those is going to magically take off through sheer luck. And I think that's a terrible game plan. I hate relying on luck.

Because as much as we can say, you know, the harder you work, the luckier you get, or you make your own luck by trying a lot of things and putting in a lot of time and developing skills and working hard, as much as we can say that, and as much as I believe that, you can't control luck.

Because as much as we can say, you know, the harder you work, the luckier you get, or you make your own luck by trying a lot of things and putting in a lot of time and developing skills and working hard, as much as we can say that, and as much as I believe that, you can't control luck.

And I've seen more than one, and by that I mean dozens upon dozens of companies just get sideswiped because they were unlucky. Platform risk, competitors. I've told stories on this podcast about people getting unlucky and then about folks who got lucky. A friend of mine who sold his business for $20 million, literally, and always says, you know, I just didn't work that hard. I got really lucky.

And I've seen more than one, and by that I mean dozens upon dozens of companies just get sideswiped because they were unlucky. Platform risk, competitors. I've told stories on this podcast about people getting unlucky and then about folks who got lucky. A friend of mine who sold his business for $20 million, literally, and always says, you know, I just didn't work that hard. I got really lucky.

I hit things at the right time. Don't rely on that because almost no one succeeds mostly based... on luck. So what I want to encourage you to do as you think about building a product is decide what to work on, then learn enough about it that you get to one of the frontiers of knowledge and then notice the knowledge gaps. I'm going to give you an example of this. When we built Drip back in 2012,

I hit things at the right time. Don't rely on that because almost no one succeeds mostly based... on luck. So what I want to encourage you to do as you think about building a product is decide what to work on, then learn enough about it that you get to one of the frontiers of knowledge and then notice the knowledge gaps. I'm going to give you an example of this. When we built Drip back in 2012,

I knew that email marketing was a cornerstone of every business that I had built up until then, including software businesses I had built, including my consulting days where I maintained an email list of interested people, including launching my first book, Start Small, Stay Small, including... launching MicroConf.

I knew that email marketing was a cornerstone of every business that I had built up until then, including software businesses I had built, including my consulting days where I maintained an email list of interested people, including launching my first book, Start Small, Stay Small, including... launching MicroConf.

All of those relied so heavily on an email list, and I knew that email marketing could be better, could be easier to use. It could have a built-in JavaScript widget that allowed you to easily place it on every page of a website. Some basic things. I decided what to work on. And then I learned enough about it that I was like, oh, yeah, there's no easy JavaScript widget.

All of those relied so heavily on an email list, and I knew that email marketing could be better, could be easier to use. It could have a built-in JavaScript widget that allowed you to easily place it on every page of a website. Some basic things. I decided what to work on. And then I learned enough about it that I was like, oh, yeah, there's no easy JavaScript widget.