Life is easier when we have a North Star. These rules / maxims / mental models / values, call them what we will, switch us into system 1 thinking and free us from analysis paralysis. When we encounter a hard problem, we reach into our bad of cognitive rules, pull out the appropriate one and just go with it. Boom, job done.

I believe the first one to get right is, “What is my reason for being, what is my purpose?”

That’s a big question. I used the Lindy effect to help choose a purpose. The Lindy effect suggests that the best ideas are ones that have stood the test of time. If something was thought about 2000 years ago, and we’re still talking about it now, then it’s probably a pretty good idea and we’ll still be talking about it in another 2000 years from now.

Some 2000-odd years ago Aristotle said

“[Eudaimonia] is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence”

Aristotle

Eudaimonia can be translated as something like, ‘the happiness acquired through the flourishing of life’.

He basically said that if we recursively ask why we do things, and we keep digging through the layers of why, we get to an answer that sounds like “because [x] will make me happy” and when you ask someone why they want to be happy, you’ll be met with blank stares. I.e. Happiness is a first principal, and everything else is built up from there.

That means that if we use ‘the flourishing of life’ as a North Star, then we’re likely to achieve happiness, the first principal and ultimate aim of human existance.

Now lets get down to business, pun intended.

It’s easier to enable the flourishing of life when we have access to resources. Successful businesses can provide us with resources.

So then, what is the North Star that guides successful businesses?

Paul Graham argues that, for startups, it’s growth.

Focusing on hitting a growth rate reduces the otherwise bewilderingly multifarious problem of starting a startup to a single problem. You can use that target growth rate to make all your decisions for you; anything that gets you the growth you need is ipso facto right. Should you spend two days at a conference? Should you hire another programmer? Should you focus more on marketing? Should you spend time courting some big customer? Should you add x feature? Whatever gets you your target growth rate.

Paul Graham

Graham says we should use revenue to measure our growth rate, that we should measure it weekly, and that we should be aiming for
5-7% revenue growth per week.

A good growth rate during YC is 5-7% a week. If you can hit 10% a week you’re doing exceptionally well. If you can only manage 1%, it’s a sign you haven’t yet figured out what you’re doing.

Paul Graham

If you don’t want to read Graham’s whole article, the take away is make the choices and engage in the behaviours that will make you grow at 5-7% a week and everything else will take care of itself.