Review: Million Dollar Weekend

Let's get this out of the way: Million Dollar Weekend is excellent. It's probably one of the best books for those in the early stages of their entrepreneurial journey. The title is clickbaity, and for that reason, I had largely avoided it until a respected friend recommended it.

Noah takes the approach of not only investing in the process of finding ideas, establishing a market, and holistically growing that idea but also investing in yourself as an entrepreneur, building skills, and taking risks that many new entrepreneurs shy away from (especially common among technical folks).

For me, this approach was a bit of a hard pill to swallow at first, but throughout the book, I felt that Noah was in the stands cheering me on. I've already started applying some of these techniques, and the outcomes have gone better than I could have expected. Only growing my confidence in the lessons.

Million Dollar Weekend is broken into three sections that translate to preparing, building the foundation, and launching that rocket. These three steps are pretty common across many business books; however, the actual advice bleeds between the stages compared to other books I've read:

1. Start It

This section is about preparation and setting an appropriate mindset. This includes defining your ultimate goal (e.g., financial freedom number) and accepting some of the challenges you'll face and hard things you'll have to do (e.g., facing rejection).

2. Build It

The "Build It" section is a bit misleading in its name. This section runs what is effectively a playbook to identify potential business ideas, determine if they have legs, and then secure financial commitment from customers. This is designed and intended to be repeatable.

Near the end of the book, the phrase "52 chances this year" appears more and more frequently. I believe its subtle intention is to prepare you for failure and cement that this technique is meant to be repeated until it's beyond obvious that an idea has legs.

3. Grow It

The "Grow It" section takes an idea with some financial commitment and provides a strategy that has been working for Noah (and many others) to scale it up into a machine by building a "growth machine." This approach avoids trendy methods and puts less dependence on third-party services like social media platforms.

Conclusion

Million Dollar Weekend is now my top recommendation for those looking to break into entrepreneurship. The process Noah describes is succinct and genuine. It doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to the hard parts, and Noah is not disillusioned about how challenging these parts can be.