🎯 The Problem
92% of founders abandon their well-intended game plan by March.
That's not a discipline problem.
That's a design problem.
OKRs. Quarterly KPIs. Annual planning retreats.
They all assume your brain works in straight lines.
If you've ever started January with the perfect system — then watched it collapse by Valentine's Day — you're not broken.
You've just been using systems built for someone else's brain.
🔄 The Shift
Here's what nobody tells you:
Complex systems fail because business isn't predictable — it's chaotic.
Chaos doesn't need a better plan. It needs a weekly reset.
I've been asking myself the same 5 questions every Friday for 50 years.
The 5 Questions Framework:
What's working? — Protects what you should keep doing
What's not working? — Name what needs to stop or change
What's missing? — Finds the gaps your brain hides from you
What's next? — Forces ONE decision — not twenty tasks
Who can help? — Breaks the "I have to do this alone" trap
The order matters.
You can't find what's missing until you've cleared what's not working.
You can't decide what's next until you see the gap.
Most planning starts with goals. This one starts with reality.
⚡ Try This
The Altlevel™ Power Prompt - Copy this into Claude or ChatGPT:
I'm a business owner doing my weekly reset.
Walk me through these 5 questions one at a time.
Wait for my answer before moving to the next.
1. What's working?
2. What's not working?
3. What's missing?
4. What's next?
5. Who can help?
After all five, give me a brutally honest summary:
What am I avoiding? What's the ONE decision I need to make?
🔍 Let’s Deep Dive
The Answers I Didn't Want to Hear
I started using these questions when I started my First real venture, a screen-printed T-shirt business.
Why? I was terrified I would fail and waste all my time and money
Some weeks, the answers were fine. Most weeks, actually.
But a few times? They wrecked me.
"What's not working?" once made me admit my best friend — my cofounder — was the problem. I fired him.
We didn't speak for three years.
"What's missing?" Once revealed, I had no idea who my customer actually was.
After two years of building. I had to start over, making skateboards.
"Who can help?" once forced me to call someone I'd burned a bridge with.
Hardest phone call of my life. Saved my arse.
Why this matters:
Most planning systems are designed to make you feel good.
Progress bars. Green checkmarks. Completed tasks.
These questions are designed to make you feel honest.
They don't care about your feelings. They care about reality. They surface the thing you're avoiding — the conversation, the decision, the truth — before it becomes a crisis.
That's why they work. Simple and powerful!
That's why they've stuck with me for 50 years, even though every other system failed by March.
The only difference now? I use AI as a thinking partner to push back on my blind spots — so I can't hide from the answers.
🎬 That’s A Wrap
Before you go: 3 Things you need to know
What is Alternative Thinking? Get your FREE PDF click here!
Next week — Moment of truth. Are you a builder or a learner?
1-3-5 GO Playbooks — The tool that asks these questions for you. Reply "WAITLIST" for early access.
Think Bigger, Play Smarter, Win More!
—Coach Will
