Welcome to One Thing Better. Each week, the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine (that’s me) shares one way to achieve a breakthrough at work — and build a career or company you love.
Today’s edition is sponsored by Stan Store, where I made $10,000 my first week. Details below!
Think of the last time you saw something — and you said, “That sucks.”
Maybe it’s a song. Or a product. Or a marketing strategy. This thing is successful, but you think it’s dumb — and you’re convinced you’re right.
Today, I have a challenge for you. Instead of dismissing it, ask yourself: “Why does that work?”
It’s a magic question. The more you ask it, the more you’ll recognize the mechanisms of success — which helps you build more successful things too!
Today, I’ll explain why it works. But first, I’ll show you the negativity I’m talking about — because I recently saw a lot of it.
That’s so dumbbbbbbbbbbbbb
Have you heard of Liquid Death? It’s a masterclass in marketing.
Liquid Death sells canned water and iced tea. But it’s packaged and marketed like an overly aggressive beer. Its tagline is Murder your thirst, and its advertising is ridiculous — like making kegs of water for pregnant women, which it called Kegs for Pregs.
The gag worked. It’s funny, attention-getting, and skyrocketed this brand to a $1.4 billion valuation. Last week, I shared a marketing lesson from the brand on LinkedIn — something I’d gotten straight from their director of marketing.
But instead of engaging with the lesson, many people just trashed Liquid Death in the comments. Like this:
And this one:
Everyone’s entitled to their opinion — but to me, negativity is an intellectual dead end. If you only focus on not liking something, you’ll never understand why others do like it.
Imagine, instead, if these people asked themselves this: “I don’t like Liquid Death, but its success is undeniable. So why does it work?”
I know: It’s hard to see something you’re resistant to, and then eagerly consider all the interesting ways that it works.
So let’s start things a little easier, by looking at something you’re not resistant to. In fact, let’s look at something you’ve never even thought to question…
Let’s look at shelves
Shelves! Like, the shelves in your home. They’re an unquestioned part of life. But let’s ask: Why do they work?
This may sound obvious — until you rewind 6,000-ish years. Shelves aren’t new; they were developed in the Neolithic era, and were a regular part of those people’s homes too.
I discovered this recently and became fascinated by it. We’re talking the late Stone Age, when humans first developed agriculture. Their world was so different from ours, but they created a tool that we still use today.
So I wanted to know: Where exactly did shelves come from? And why did they work?
I called anthropologist John Shea, who teaches at Stony Brook University. We spoke on my podcast, and he gave me this wonderful breakdown.
Imagine living in Neolithic times, he said…
- You’re among the first humans to stay in one place.
- You must accumulate food and medicine to survive.
- You must store these things safely — so you make pottery.
- You can’t keep pottery on the floor, because your children might break it. (And given the high infant mortality rates, you’ll have a lot of children.)
- Breaking pottery means losing food and medicine, which means death.
- “What do you do?” John asked. “The answer is that you invent a way to store things off the floor. So you invent shelves.”
When I heard this, my mind blew open. It’s clear and simple logic — stringing together needs and solutions in a way I hadn’t thought of.
Now that we’ve considered the interesting reasons behind something we like, we can start to repeat that process with things we don’t.
It’s time to reconstruct success
Humans are pattern-matchers. The more you see how things work, the more you can apply the pattern in new and valuable ways.
So here’s my challenge: When you see something you don’t understand, start by asking my question: Why does this work?
And to find the answer, you can start by asking these next questions:
- What else must be true, in order for this to work?
- Why was that true?
For example, let’s look at Liquid Death. It works. So what else must be true?
Well, let’s see…
What else must be true: People will buy a funny water brand.
Why: Because the water shelves are boring! Every other brand looks the same, with the same messaging, which made it easy for Liquid Death to stand out. As it turns out, every category can be innovated — and there are opportunities in unexpected places.
And we can go deeper…
What else must be true: Ridiculous marketing works.
Why: Because it doesn’t come off like marketing — it feels like entertainment. And in a digital world, when ads are easily skippable, people only stop for entertainment.
And so on. You can keep going — revealing new insights about how things work, where opportunities are, and how you can replicate success.
It’s not easy, but it is satisfying
It’s fun to dismiss things. I do it all the time — like when my kids ask me to play pop music in the car. I hate pop. Blech!
But you know what’s more satisfying than being negative? It’s being curious. Instead of stewing over my hate of pop, I could wonder: What does it tell me about culture today? About musical trends?
When you think like this, you’ll find revelations everywhere!
One final example from this very newsletter:
Last week, I ran an ad for my beloved bookkeeping service, Kick. A reader replied, telling me she was annoyed: She’d clicked on my ad, then received two marketing emails from Kick — without having given them her email address.
How’d that happen, she asked? Did I do it?
I didn’t. So I asked Kick. As it turns out, they use a tool to guess the identify of website visitors — and if a visitor is in the top 1% of their target user profile, it sends a few follow-up emails. Kick tells me that this has been very effective.
At first, this surprised me. It feels invasive!
But then I paused. I thought: Hmm, but it works. So why?
Then I came up with a hypothesis: If someone visits Kick’s website, it’s because they’re seeking a bookkeeper. And there are many reasons they didn’t sign up immediately — they might be busy, distracted, or accidentally closed the window.
Therefore, the email serves as a helpful reminder — and because it works, that means people like reminders. Because people might still be interested in you, even if they didn’t buy.
Now that’s a great lesson in consumer habits and psychology.
You don’t learn anything by dismissing things. You learn by reconstructing why they work.
That’s how to do one thing better.
I made $10,000 in one week using this
This is the best sales platform I’ve found… and I’ve tried many.
It’s called Stan Store, and it’s perfect for anyone who sells things online — courses, digital products, coaching, webinars, and more.
For example, this is my store. I use it to sell 1:1 calls, my personal branding course, and more — and it netted $10K the first week I used it. (Yay!)
Here’s why I love Stan:
- All‑in‑one storefront: Sell products, collect emails, schedule calls — all from one simple page
- Super simple setup: I built my storefront in minutes, and updating is easy
- Keep 100% of the revenue: Stan takes zero commission!
- Powerful marketing tools: Upsells, affiliate links, Instagram DM automations, and more
Try it yourself — with a 14-day free trial. Start here.
And if you have questions, just reply and ask me. I’m happy to share my experiences!
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