Newsletter 100: What Actually Matters

Happy Tuesday!

In case you forgot, I’m that guy (@thekoerneroffice on the socials) that you probably found in a short form video talking about random business ideas.

Who am I? I’m Chris Koerner: Dad of 4, husband of 16 years and proud Texan. I’ve started 75+ business (3 worth over $10m) and give away all of my learnings for free in a once/week email.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

And hey, wow! This is the 100th Koerner Office newsletter!

When I started this thing, I had no idea if anyone would read it. No idea if I'd have anything worth saying week after week. No idea if I could keep showing up with all the things going on in my life.

But here we are. Newsletter 100. And you're still here. That means everything.

Through it all, you've opened these emails, replied with your own stories, and kept me honest. So thank you. Seriously. For reading, for engaging, for being part of this journey.

I hope you stick around for the 1,000th edition as well!

For this hundredth edition, I wanted to go big. I spent two hours talking with my friend Ben who runs a podcast studying the greatest achievers in history.

Julius Caesar. Steve Jobs. Napoleon. The Wright Brothers.

You don’t have time to listen to all 100+ of his episodes, so I summarize the most important learnings into this quick email.

If this is something you want to dive into, go watch or listen this conversation in its entirety here: YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

And here's what hit me hardest: The thing that separates the greatest who have ever lived from everyone else isn't what you think.

It's not intelligence. It's not resources. It's not even luck.

It’s all about things you can do, you can have, you can cultivate.

1. Communication Is Your Superpower

You don't become great by working hard. You become great by getting other people to work hard.

Think about that for a second.

Napoleon didn't win battles because he was the best swordsman. Julius Caesar wasn't the strongest soldier. Steve Jobs didn't write the best code.

They won because they could communicate a vision so clearly, so powerfully, that armies of people followed them into the unknown.

Ben told me something I can't stop thinking about: "If you have 33 million businesses in America and 32 million have zero employees, it's because most people can't communicate well enough to scale their idea."

Harsh? Maybe. True? Absolutely.

You hear people saying "nobody wants to work anymore." That's been printed in newspapers since newspapers were invented. The problem isn't workers. The problem is leaders who can't articulate what they're building or why it matters.

I'm guilty of this too. I'll have a brilliant idea in my head, but when I try to explain it to my team, it comes out jumbled. Then I wonder why they're not as excited as I am.

The answer is simple. I didn't communicate the vision. I just assigned tasks.

2. Action Beats Perfection Every Single Time

Napoleon had this quote that stopped me cold: "First I engage, then I figure out what to do."

Read that again.

He didn't plan the perfect battle strategy first. He made contact with the enemy, started fighting, and figured it out in real time.

The Wright Brothers did the same thing. While everyone else was drawing up elaborate plans and building complex prototypes, they built kites. Human-sized kites. They went to North Carolina, got up on a hill, and just started testing.

Dozens of iterations. Dozens of failures. All in the pursuit of one question: What's the smallest thing we can do right now to make progress?

Everyone else was stuck in the planning phase. The Wright Brothers were in the air.

I see this all the time with entrepreneurs. They'll spend six months perfecting a logo, building a website, planning a launch strategy. Meanwhile, someone else with a worse product and a website that looks like it was made in 1997 is already making sales.

Why? Because they engaged first. They figured it out later.

Ready. Fire. Aim.

That used to be the name of one of my LLCs. Because that's how real progress happens.

3. Follow Energy, Not Just Passion

Speaking of diving into passions… Ben said something that rewired my brain: "Follow passion, not your passion." I had to stop and repeat it to myself.

We've all heard "follow your passion." Graduate high school, follow your passion. Quit your job, follow your passion. The problem is the assumption that you have one singular passion and once you find it, you're set for life.

That's not how it works.

Thomas Edison tried newspapers first. Then telegraph work. Then dozens of other things before he found inventing. The Wright Brothers did newspapers, then bicycles, then flight.

They weren't scattered. They were serially focused. They went all in on one thing until they realized the timing wasn't right or it wasn't what they thought. Then they moved on and went all in on something else.

The key? They chased energy.

When something gives you energy instead of draining it, that's your signal. When you find yourself staying up late working on something not because you have to but because you want to, that's your signal.

I just started mowing my own lawn after hiring it out for 15 years. I freaking love it. Is that my life's calling? No. But it gives me energy, and that energy spills over into everything else I do.

If you're grinding away at something that exhausts you, maybe the answer isn't to grind harder. Maybe the answer is to redirect that effort toward something that pulls you forward instead of pushing you.

4. The Rockefeller Principle.

John D. Rockefeller wanted to work at a big business in Cleveland. He made a list of 30 companies and interviewed with every single one.

All 30 companies said no.

So he went back and interviewed with all 30 again. All 30 said no… again.

Third time around, one company finally hired him just to get him to stop showing up. That job became the launching pad for him becoming the wealthiest man in the world.

Ben calls this the Rockefeller Principle: If you know what you want, have you failed at least twice as much as any reasonable person could expect before you decide to move on?

At least twice as much.

Most people get rejected five times and think that's their sign to pivot. Rockefeller got rejected 60 times before someone gave him a shot.

Vision isn't about having all the answers. It's about having unshakable conviction in where you're going, even when nobody else sees it yet.

I spent two years walking around Hungary knocking on doors and getting rejected thousands of times. It built character. Rejection isn’t personal. It’s math.

But of course, rejection isn’t fun. And the more follow up you do, the more successful you’ll be. Most leads don't convert because you didn't follow up fast enough or often enough.

HighLevel removes rejection from the equation by automating your follow-up so consistently that you never go silent.

Here's what happens: Someone fills out your form. Instantly, they get a text. Two minutes later, an email. If they don't respond in 24 hours, another text. Three days later, another email. A week later, one more check-in. All automatic.

Stats back this up: Businesses that follow up within five minutes are 20 times more likely to convert than those who wait an hour. Most people wait way longer than an hour. Or forget entirely.

HighLevel makes sure you're always first. Always consistent. Always there when the lead is finally ready. They've got a 30-day free trial at gohighlevel.com/tkopod.

What All of This Means for You

You don't need to conquer nations or invent electricity to apply any of these principles.

You just need to start.

Start communicating your vision more clearly. Start taking action before you feel ready. Start chasing the things that give you energy. Start failing more than seems reasonable.

Because here's the truth: We have more than enough money, more than enough resources, more than enough everything in the world.

You'd be shocked at how much you can accomplish with vision, action, communication, and just following all the things you’re already passionate about.

And here I want to take another second to thank you for sticking with me after all this time. I hope you find value every single week.

And again, if this is something you want to dive into, go watch or listen this conversation in its entirety here: YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

Get out there and take action. Everything is figureoutable.

Before we go, if you’ve been here a while, you might remember that friend I mentioned who was building indoor pickleball clubs under the Ace Pickleball Club brand.

Yeah, well things moved fast.

Ace just locked in a multi-year national partnership with DoorDash. DoorDash is now the official on-demand delivery partner for every Ace location nationwide.

Ace is projecting over 35 clubs across 21 states by early 2026.

Here’s where you come in. If you want to learn more or explore investment opportunities in this thing, here’s my buddy Tabish’s Calendy where you can book a time to chat with him! He’s a great guy and doing big things that you can get in on.

Have a great week!

Chris

P.S. I share deep dives on business ideas and complete playbooks three times a week on YouTube and every podcast platform.