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Send me an email on Tuesday and you hear back the following Monday. That lag buys six days of unbroken focus, the same way Costco's 14% markup cap and Southwest's single aircraft type bought each company the thing it actually sells.
Send me an email on Tuesday and you hear back the following Monday. That lag buys six days of unbroken focus, the same way Costco's 14% markup cap and Southwest's single aircraft type bought each company the thing it actually sells.
Featuring: Thomas Sowell
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One mental model each day in a few minutes. Habits, business, building products and thinking clearly. From Dru Riley, founder of Trends.vc.
"There are no solutions, only trade-offs."
Thomas Sowell
All of my meetings are on Mondays.
Masterminds, team calls, one-on-ones and email run back to back without a break.
By evening I am out of words.
The other six days my team is the filter. A real fire reaches me. A small one waits until Monday.
That subtraction costs me speed. Send me something on Tuesday and you hear back the following Monday. But it buys six days of unbroken focus.
Each strength is funded by a deliberate weakness.
Costco chose to sacrifice markup and selection. It caps markup on branded products at 14% over cost. Kirkland Signature, its own label, gets 15%. Most retailers work on 25% to 50%.
Costco stocks around 4,000 items.
A typical supermarket carries 30,000.
Stock 30,000 items and you buy less of each one. Smaller orders cost more.
By capping markup and limiting items, Costco bought massive volume. The membership fee carries about half the operating profit, paying for low prices all along.
Southwest Airlines cut comfort to buy turnaround speed.
It built its operation around a single aircraft type, the Boeing 737.
- One set of spare parts
- One training course for pilots and mechanics
- Crews that move between aircraft with far less retraining
The airline also skipped assigned seats and meals. Flights ran point-to-point rather than routing everyone through hubs.
Those subtractions bought faster turnarounds, more flights per aircraft each day and lower fares. Assigned seating finally arrived in January 2026.
Both companies protect what they actually sell.
Costco sells trust that the price is the lowest available. It can keep margins tiny, but it cannot lose buying power.
Southwest promises cheap seats that leave on time.
Meals and comfort are easy to cut. Turnaround speed is not.
Costco gave up margin. Southwest gave up comfort. I give up response speed.
Pick what you will be worst at, then earn it by being extreme elsewhere.
What could you neglect to buy room for your biggest strength?