What Sam Altman’s Prediction About The $1B One-Person Business Model Means For You

If you’re under 39, you’ve got a massive advantage.

I’m going all-in on the one-person business model.

This shouldn’t surprise you. I write about the one-person business model all the time. The best part? You can build a one-person business while you work a full-time job.

But a recent quote by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made me realize the opportunity:

“In my little group chat with my tech CEO friends, there’s this betting pool for the first year that there is a one-person billion-dollar company. Which would have been unimaginable without AI and now will happen.”

Here’s what this means for you.

If you’re under 39, you’ve got a massive advantage.

I work with a lot of people over 40 years old.

To put it bluntly, they don’t know how to use the internet. They still type with one finger at a time. They struggle to use basic project management tools. This isn’t everyone over 40, but it’s been my experience so far.

I’m not trying to be mean, this is what I’ve observed.

They also struggle with:

• Online communication (i.e emails)

• Creating engaging content on any platform.

• Building a personal branding on social media

They barely know how to use 20th-century technology effectively, let alone leverage Artificial Intelligence in any meaningful way.

This means you’ve got a positional advantage on them.

• I’ve more than halved my workload by automating or delegating lots of it to ChatGPT. I reinvest that time to learn more about new and emerging AI.

• I create content online to build my own personal brand and one-person business so I’m not fully reliant on my 9–5 job. I could lose my job tomorrow and not be worried.

• I have no responsibilities. No kids, partners, or pets. This means I have more time to learn, experiment, and test.

Your age is an asset. Use it.

There are three components of a one-person business.

1. An attractive character = your personal brand.

2. A new opportunity = what you want to achieve.

3. A new vehicle = how you will achieve it.

Most of your time should be spent on step 1.

Steps 2 and 3 become easier once you’ve got an established personal brand.

So what goes into your personal brand?

All your:

• Interests

• Hobbies

• Obsessions

• Thoughts

Forget about ‘niching’ down your personal brand. That’s dumb.

Create your own niche. Become a category king and you’ll be irreplaceable.

Joe Rogan never chose a niche. He combined his love for comedy, hunting, psychedelics, UFC, and martial arts into one personal brand. No one can compete with him, because they are not him.

No one can compete with being you.

The roadmap for building your one-person business

• Solve your problems.

• Document your journey.

• Sell your solution via coaching (1:1 or group)

• Productized the solution into a repeatable and scalable system.

• Sell the productized solution passively over time with increasing profit margins.

Repeat this cycle over and over again.

As you go through life, you’ll solve difficult problems. Human life evolves by cycles of encountering a problem, becoming aware of it, and finding a solution to your problem.

Nothing else matters but solving problems.

Forget about creating a website, business cards, or joining an accelerator. These are nothing more than just mental masturbation. Focus on solving one problem, for one person through one method.

You can always iterate from there.

I see too many people get caught up in finding the perfect idea or niche. No idea is new. You’ll change ideas over 50 times. And as we covered before, the idea of a narrow niche is dumb.

Solve problems. Charge for the solution. Scale through technology.

Every one-person business is a micro-education business.

People believe that $149 online courses are a scam.

But they will happily take out a lifelong loan of $50,000 and waste 3–4 years of their life learning outdated content that won’t get them a job. Let alone make them money.

Every $1 I’ve put into online courses or coaching has given me $10.

I don’t even have a course to sell you either (yet). I skyrocketed my Medium earnings and views after taking Ayo’s writing course. I got way more leads from LinkedIn after Justin Welsh’s course.

Human progress fundamentally relies on peer-to-peer education.

• You learned how to walk by copying others.

• You learned how to talk by mimicking noises people made.

• You learned what was acceptable and not acceptable by observing others.

Everything you learned was from the people around you.

Now the internet allows you to learn anything from anyone.

I’ve got no interest in building a massive start-up with venture capital funding.

It’s honestly a headache.

You’ll have to give up chunks of your company equity, likely have 2–3 co-founders, hire a boatload of people, and have investors constantly breathing down your neck for growth at all costs.

Plus:

• 90% of start-ups fail.

• Your company valuation makes you paper-rich.

• You’ll be working 12–14 hour days, 6–7 days per week.

If you don’t make it, you’ll be broke and have your confidence shot.

So many people chose this option in the past because it was the only vehicle to get rich. There weren’t many other alternatives.

Not anymore.

There’s a new generation of online creators who are making multiple millions of dollars per year at 90%+ profit margins while working 4–5 hours per day and living a lifestyle based on freedom and autonomy.

• Justin Welsh.

• Brett Williams (DesignJoy).

• Tim Denning.

• Dan Koe.

Plus these entrepreneurs will teach you everything they know for $150.

We are living in a new world.

The one-person business model is already revolutionizing how we work.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Build your personal brand.

• Create a new opportunity.

• Productize your vehicle (offer)

• Keep learning from other creators.

I’m ready for this revolution. Are you?

---

👉 I’ve previously sold a one-person business and I’m in the process of scaling another one to $20k per month. If you want my one-person business growth system, I’ve created a FREE email course for you to get started.