JDP

Founder of Peterson Research & Advisory | Obsessed with Customer Acquisition | Own 600+ books in business, marketing, and communication.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

Your success in the pursuit of your goals is not dependent on how many things you say “Yes” to.

It’s dependent on how many things you say “No” to.

If you’re not moving toward your goals, start saying “No” to more things.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

The most valuable thing you can do for your business this week isn't a sales call.

It's writing down exactly how you do what you do.

Not to delegate it. To understand it first.

Most owners have no idea what they're actually doing.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

Here's a principle I keep coming back to: the majority is always wrong.

Not sometimes. Not usually. Always.

If the crowd is doing it, that tells you what the average result looks like.

You want more than average? Do less of what they're doing.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

The ideas that won't let you go are usually the ones worth following.

Not every distraction is an obsession. But every obsession starts as a distraction.

The difference is whether it's still there when the world pulls you somewhere else.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

A business will grow until it hits a constraint. That's the only pattern you need to know.

If you're not growing, the job is simple: find the constraint.

Not the 10 things you THINK are constraints.

The ONE thing that's blocking everything else.

Your only job: remove that.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

Everyone obsesses over the risk of taking action.

Nobody talks about the risk of doing nothing.

Staying where you are is a choice too. It has a cost too.

You're just not calculating it.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

Death is the ultimate permission giver.

Whatever you're afraid to do because of someone else's opinion... Measure it against that.

You're going to die. Everyone judging you is going to die.

Why does their opinion still have the final word?

[JDP @JDP_1989]

Before you go all in on something, ask one question:

Is this a game worth winning?

Not CAN you win. Not WILL you win.

Worth winning. Some games you can win and the prize isn't worth the cost.

Stop entering those games.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

Price is never cheap or expensive on its own.

It's only cheap or expensive compared to something.

If your prospect thinks your price is high, you haven't controlled what they're comparing it to.

That's not a pricing problem. It's a framing problem.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

Sunday morning I connected Claude to my Obsidian vault

That's where I capture everything I've ever read, watched, or learned.

All that knowledge, in one place, with something that can learn from all of it at once.

That changed how I see every note I've ever taken.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

Ask yourself: how could I guarantee failure here?

Write it out. All of it.

Then do the opposite.

It sounds absurd. It works every time.

Thank you Charlie Munger.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

Commitment isn't a feeling. It's the decision you keep making after the feeling wears off.

The feeling always wears off. Usually right when it starts to count.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

Hachette just pulled a horror novel over suspected AI use.

The author denied it.

Didn't matter.

The publisher acted on fear, not proof.

The new literary gatekeeping isn't about whether the writing is good. It's about whether a machine might have helped.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

The moment you most want to quit is almost never the right moment to quit.

It's the moment the resistance is highest, which usually means you're closest to something.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

McKinsey calls it MECE.

Mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive.

Sounds like jargon. It isn't.

Solve the whole problem, once, with no overlap.

Most business owners never do that.

They spend careers solving symptoms.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

Strategic hiring means one thing: this person will eventually replace me in this function.

If they can't, you hired an extra set of hands.

Useful. But not leverage.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

The biggest automation mistake isn't picking the wrong software.

It's automating a broken process.

You don't fix a problem by making it run faster.

You get faster problems.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

Most leaders hang on to mediocre performance because it feels safe.

I've seen it a hundred times: "At least we know what we have."

What you have is a ceiling disguised as a floor.

There's better out there.

But you'll never find it while you're protecting what isn't working.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

My manager gave notice this week.

He's been underperforming for months.
My peers were more concerned than I was.

I wasn't sad.

And that reaction told me something.

[JDP @JDP_1989]

The world is more malleable than you've been told.

Most constraints are social agreements, not physical laws.

Prices. Roles. Norms. Access.

They're all made up by someone.
Which means they can be unmade.

Try the handle before you assume the door is locked.