Regret Minimization Framework - The Reason Behind Peacock Golf
When asked why he started Amazon, Jeff Bezos gave the reason “regret minimization framework”, a dorkier way of saying, “You only live once.” He explained that when he’s old and decrepit, he wants to look back at his life and have as little regret as possible. He wants to minimize the regret, and that way of thinking has made him who he is today. It’s something that truly resonates with me.
Peacock is myself and Brady’s attempt at regret minimization. Do we want to work for the man or become the man? We have decided to take a hobby we both enjoy and try to make it into an empire. We both love golf, we're not good, but that’s ok. That’s what separates us from the market. We are just like the majority of golfers who aren’t good enough to play in competitive tournaments (and wouldn’t want to anyways), we play a few times a month with friends, and you can probably see us at the 19th hole after hitting our 5th triple bogey on the 18th.
We have set out to produce a shoe that fits the forgotten golfer, a market that has nagged us for months now to dive into. Peacock (our expected company name) is our attempt to minimize regret and attack our dream. However, we do both have careers outside of this project. Brady already works for another tech startup, he's an independent contractor and is an engineer for Capital One. I am a 21 credit, full-time student with a job in E-commerce.
So to combat capacity overload, we produce achievable weekly goals that can be hit without adding an extreme amount to our already hectic schedules. We call this our 1% rule, how can we make the company 1% better every day? As a startup, 1% a day is possible once the company moves out of infancy and 1% has compounded for months, this idea may be more difficult. But for now, it's attainable. 1% a day could mean researching a proper accounting principle to amortize shoe molds or calling an accountant to make a meeting to set up the LLC. These are very basic and easy tasks, but they compound and keep us on the right track and thinking about our dream over time.
I hope you follow us on our path to make this company 1% better every day and watch us follow our regret minimization framework. And who knows, maybe our journey will lead you to take your shot at minimizing regret!
Khal Clary