The Purposeful Economist's Audiobook Mastery Workbook

Your Current Context

Before diving into the audiobooks, let's establish where you are right now:

Primary Funding Goal

Your Active Ventures (List all)

Biggest Challenge Right Now

What Success Looks Like in 90 Days

1

The Lean Startup

by Eric Ries

Core Principle: Build-Measure-Learn

The fundamental activity of a startup is to turn ideas into products, measure how customers respond, and then learn whether to pivot or persevere. All successful startup processes should be geared to accelerate that feedback loop.

Pre-Listen Setup: Your Startup Definition

Ries defines a startup as "an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty."

✏️ Exercise 1.1: Which Ventures Are True Startups?

Venture	Is it a Startup?	Why / Why Not?
Avid Solutions International	Yes No
OnticWorks	Yes No
GovPulse	Yes No

Validated Learning

Ries' Definition:

"Validated learning is the process of demonstrating empirically that a team has discovered valuable truths about a startup's present and future business prospects."

🔬 Exercise 1.2: Your Validated Learning Assessment

For Avid Solutions' 58% water savings claim, what evidence do you have that this is what farmers actually value most?

Number of customer interviews conducted:

Number of pilot deployments:

Number of farmers who paid for it:

Critical Ries Question: "Are you building something people want, or are you building something and hoping people want it?"

Your honest answer for Avid Solutions:

The Build-Measure-Learn Loop

The Core Engine:

IDEAS → BUILD (MVP) → PRODUCT → MEASURE (Data) → LEARN (Insights) → IDEAS

Critical Insight: Start with LEARN (what do you need to learn?), then work backward to MEASURE and BUILD.

🔄 Exercise 1.3: Reverse-Engineering Your Learning

What You Need to LEARN (Start Here)

What must you prove to investors to secure $1.5M-$2M?

Learning Goal 1:

Learning Goal 2:

Learning Goal 3:

What You Need to MEASURE (Work Backward)

What data would prove each learning above?

Metric 1:

Metric 2:

Metric 3:

What You Need to BUILD (Final Step)

What is the minimum product/pilot/test that generates that data?

MVP 1:

MVP 2:

MVP 3:

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Ries' Definition:

"The MVP is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort."

The Zappos Test: Nick Swinmurn tested "Will people buy shoes online?" by taking photos of shoes at stores, posting online, and buying/shipping only when someone ordered. This tested demand WITHOUT building inventory.

⚡ Exercise 1.4: Your Zappos-Style Test

The standard approach you might be using (expensive, slow):

The Zappos approach (minimal, fast):

Metric	Standard Approach	Zappos Approach
Cost
Time to Learn

Pivot or Persevere

Ries' Definition:

"A pivot is a structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, strategy, and engine of growth."

🎯 Exercise 1.5: Pivot Assessment

Are you currently in "pivot or persevere" zone?

Yes No

If yes, what type of pivot might be needed? (Customer segment, value capture, platform, channel, etc.)

What data would tell you it's time to pivot?

Schedule Your Pivot/Persevere Meeting:

2

Blitzscaling

by Reid Hoffman & Chris Yeh

Core Principle: Speed Over Efficiency

Blitzscaling is prioritizing speed over efficiency in the face of uncertainty to achieve massive scale.

The Blitzscaling Formula

BLITZSCALING = Business Model Innovation + Growth Factors - Growth Limiters

Four Growth Factors Assessment

📊 Exercise 2.1: Growth Factors Scorecard

1. Market Size

Total addressable market (TAM):

Your realistic serviceable market in 5 years:

Is market growing? Annual rate:

Score (1-10):

2. Distribution

How do customers currently discover your type of product?

Can you leverage existing networks? Which ones?

Score (1-10):

3. High Gross Margins

Your gross margin:

Cost to serve one more customer:

Score (1-10):

4. Network Effects

Does your product get better as more people use it?

Yes No

How?

Score (1-10):

TOTAL GROWTH FACTORS SCORE: Add all four scores. If below 30/40, you're not ready to blitzscale. Need to improve business model first.

Total Score:

The Five Stages of Blitzscaling

📈 Exercise 2.2: Stage Mapping

Stage	Size	Focus
Family	1-9 employees	Achieve product/market fit
Tribe	10s of employees	Design repeatable business model
Village	100s of employees	Delegate management, build culture
City	1,000s of employees	Executive team runs operations
Nation	10,000+ employees	New product lines, business units

For Avid Solutions, you are currently at stage:

To reach the next stage, you need:

Timeline to next stage:

Capital required:

Should You Blitzscale?

⚡ Exercise 2.3: Blitzscaling Decision

You should blitzscale ONLY when:

You have product/market fit ✓
You have growth factors working ✓
You face competitive threat OR opportunity ✓
Speed is critical strategy ✓

Do you have product/market fit?

Yes No

Evidence:

Your Growth Factors score from earlier:

Is this a winner-take-all/most market?

Yes No

Why:

YOUR DECISION: Should you blitzscale?

Yes, because:

No, should grow steadily because:

3

Doughnut Economics

by Kate Raworth

The Doughnut Model:

Inner Ring = Social Foundation (basic needs)
Outer Ring = Ecological Ceiling (planetary boundaries)
The Goal = Get humanity into the sweet spot between them

The Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist

🍩 Exercise 3.1: Your Doughnut Scorecard

Social Foundation (Rate Your Impact 0-5)

Are you helping people meet basic needs?

Need	Your Impact (0-5)
Water security
Food security
Income & work
Education
Social equity

Ecological Ceiling (Rate Your Impact -5 to +5)

-5 = Major harm, 0 = Neutral, +5 = Major regeneration

Boundary	Your Impact (-5 to +5)
Climate change
Freshwater withdrawals
Biodiversity loss
Chemical pollution

You're in the Doughnut if: Social Foundation score >15 AND Ecological Ceiling score >0

Your Total Social Foundation Score:

Your Total Ecological Ceiling Score:

Are you in the Doughnut?

Yes No - What needs to change:

Way 5: Design to Distribute

Raworth's Argument:

"We need economies that are distributive by DESIGN, not economies that promise to distribute later through 'trickle down.'"

⚖️ Exercise 3.2: Distributive Design Audit

Enterprise Ownership

Who currently owns equity in your company?

Could you offer (check all that apply):

Employee ownership (ESOP)

Customer/farmer cooperative ownership

Community investment

Profit sharing

Technology & Knowledge

Data you collect from farmers - who owns it?

You own it

Farmers own it

Shared ownership

Should ownership change? Why?

Distributive Redesign

Choose ONE area to redesign for distribution:

Current design (concentrates wealth):

New design (distributes wealth):

Way 6: Create to Regenerate

♻️ Exercise 3.3: From Linear to Circular

Current Linear Model

TAKE - What resources do you extract?

MAKE - What do you produce? What waste?

LOSE - What happens at end of product life?

New Circular Model

RESTORE - How could you give back MORE than you take?

CYCLE - How could waste become input?

SHARE - Could products be shared not owned?

Way 7: Be Agnostic About Growth

Raworth's Radical Idea:

"What if the goal is to thrive, whether or not we grow? Grow if needed to thrive, but thriving is the goal."

🌱 Exercise 3.4: Growth Agnosticism Check

Why do you need to grow? (Check all that apply)

To serve more people (mission-driven)

To achieve profitability (operational)

To satisfy investors (external pressure)

To compete (market-driven)

Because that's what startups do (assumption)

Imagine Avid Solutions at stable $10M revenue, serving 500 farms well, profitable, regenerative. Would this be success or failure?

What would thriving without growth require?

4

Thinking in Bets

by Annie Duke

Core Principle: Life is Poker, Not Chess

Chess = Perfect information, no luck. Poker = Hidden information, uncertainty, skill shows over time. Life is like poker.

Resulting: Don't Equate Outcome with Decision Quality

🎲 Exercise 4.1: Decision Quality vs. Outcome Quality

Pete Carroll's Super Bowl Call: Called a pass (intercepted, lost game). Critics: "Worst call ever." Duke's analysis: Actually smart - high probability of TD or incomplete pass. Good decision, bad outcome.

Think of a recent decision where you fell into "resulting" (judged decision by outcome, not process):

What was the outcome?

Was the decision process actually good/bad independent of outcome?

For Your Fundraising: If you DON'T secure $2M, does that automatically mean your pitch was bad? Or could it be a good decision with bad luck?

What would make it a good decision even with bad outcome:

Thinking in Probabilities

Duke's Method:

Replace "This will work" with "I'm 70% confident this will work"

📊 Exercise 4.2: Probabilistic Fundraising

For your $1.5M-$2M fundraise, assign probabilities (must sum to 100%):

Outcome	Probability	Your Plan If This Happens
Raise full $2M+
Raise $1.5M-$2M
Raise $1M-$1.5M
Raise $500K-$1M
Raise less than $500K
TOTAL	100%

Mental Time Travel

⏰ Exercise 4.3: Premortem - Imagine Failure

Scenario: It's January 2027. Avid Solutions failed to raise significant capital and you're shutting down. What happened?

List 10 reasons for failure:

For the controllable factors above, what will you do NOW to prevent them?

Building Your Decision Pod

Duke's Method:

Create a "truth-seeking pod" - a group committed to accuracy over agreement. Use CUDOS principles: Communism (shared data), Universalism (judge by merit), Disinterestedness (separate from ego), Organized Skepticism (challenge everything).

👥 Exercise 4.4: Your Decision Pod

Name	What They Bring	Will Challenge You?

First Pod Meeting Date:

Decision to analyze at first meeting:

Ulysses Contracts

Named for Ulysses: He tied himself to the ship's mast so he couldn't respond to Sirens' call. Precommit to behaviors to overcome future irrationality.

⚓ Exercise 4.5: Your Ulysses Contracts

Bad behavior you want to prevent (e.g., accepting desperate term sheet):

Your Ulysses contract to prevent it:

Good behavior you want to ensure (e.g., following up with intros):

Your Ulysses contract to ensure it:

5

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

by Ben Horowitz

Core Reality: The Struggle

"While many people talk about how great it is to start a business, very few are honest about how difficult it is to run one."

Peacetime CEO vs. Wartime CEO

Horowitz's Framework:

Peacetime: Market growing, ahead of competition, focus on expansion
Wartime: Company survival at risk, competitive threats, existential challenges

⚔️ Exercise 5.1: Peacetime or Wartime?

Venture	Peacetime	Wartime	Why
Avid Solutions
OnticWorks
GovPulse

For ventures in wartime, what threatens survival?

Wartime actions needed immediately:

Honest Check: Are you being a peacetime CEO when you need to be a wartime CEO?

Example of peacetime behavior when you should be in wartime mode:

The Hard Decisions You're Avoiding

💔 Exercise 5.2: Face the Hard Thing

What hard decision are you putting off?

Why is it hard?

What happens if you decide?

What happens if you don't decide?

Horowitz would say: "Do you want to be right or do you want to be CEO?"

When will you make this decision?

The Struggle - Dealing With It

Signs you're in The Struggle:

Payroll uncertain
Key person quit
Product not working
You're questioning yourself
Sleep becomes impossible

🌙 Exercise 5.3: The Struggle Journal

What keeps you up at night?

Who knows the real situation? Who can you be completely honest with?

Your healthy coping mechanisms:

Your unhealthy coping mechanisms:

What support do you need?

Lead Bullets, Not Silver Bullets

Horowitz: "There are no silver bullets. Only lead bullets."
Silver bullet = "If we just hire that person/get that investor, everything will be fine"
Lead bullet = Do the hard work of 100 small improvements

🎯 Exercise 5.4: Silver Bullet Reality Check

What silver bullets are you hoping for?

For each silver bullet above, what are the lead bullet alternatives (the actual hard work)?

Synthesis: The Five Books Together

Integrating all five frameworks for purposeful economics

🔗 Your 90-Day Implementation Plan

Month 1 (Next 30 Days)

From LEAN STARTUP, I will:

From BLITZSCALING, I will:

From DOUGHNUT ECONOMICS, I will:

From THINKING IN BETS, I will:

From HARD THINGS, I will:

Month 2 (Days 31-60)

Key actions across all frameworks:

Month 3 (Days 61-90)

Key actions across all frameworks:

✍️ Your Commitment

My biggest learning goal from these five books:

My biggest application goal:

How success will look different because of these books:

The one thing I'll do differently starting tomorrow:

Signature:

Date: