Today I turned 38. I spent part of my birthday finishing the first version of a book, and now I am putting it out for free.
It is called For One Person.
Read online here ForOnePerson.com or download the PDF.
For years I have built products and companies for one real person at a time, never for an imaginary crowd. A free project I have run since 2017, CodeFTW, was built the same way: I kept telling myself that if it changed one life it was worth all of it. That one life turned out to be Denilson, who is still with me today and is now a friend, not a statistic.
So I wrote this book for one person too.
I do not know who that person is.
Maybe it is you.
It is not an autobiography. It is closer to a reverse engineering of my operating system, the eight mental models I actually use to decide, work, lead, take risks, protect my family, deal with my health, and keep playing the long game:
- Family First
- Protect the Machine
- Two-Way Door Asymmetry
- Get Into the Weeds
- You Only Have 24 Hours
- Aggressive Momentum
- The Compounding Effect
- The Infinite Game
The personal stories are in there because models without stories are just slogans.
My father, a factory worker who called me his number one friend. The cancer I faced in 2022. The 26 kg I lost because a dog needed walking twice a day. Almost 20 years with Lu. My son Lucas. The companies that worked and the ones that did not.
It is free to read at ForOnePerson.com, and it is alive. It will keep changing as I change, with dated entries, because a static operating system goes obsolete and a living one updates.
If it reaches one person and helps them make one better decision, protect one relationship, or take one smarter risk, it was worth writing.
If that person is you, let me know.
And whatever you are building, enjoy the people you love while you do it.
They do not last forever, and neither do you.