Sunday March 2nd, 2025
What I learned this week | Working With Source
Hey all, back at it this week. Back to original format — here's a few things I read or listened to and what I learned this past week.
-Mike
🔖 My feed this week
I listened to Episode 409 of Invest Like the Best with Graham Duncan, titled "The Talent Whisperer" (originally aired February 4th.)
My favorite part was about “working with source,” a framework for building authentic work relationships. I found Duncan’s views on work, investing, and life to be refreshingly human and inspiring. I’ve been telling everyone about this episode, regardless of which industry they work in.
The episode made me curious to learn more about Peter Koenig’s Source Principles, so I dug deeper into Work with Source and discovered Tom Nixon’s work, which simplifies the concept. Highly recommend this simple yet powerful framework for anyone starting a new project.
I also read an investment memo about a company called Earth. Earth is transforming death care with carbon-neutral funerals and a better experience for loved ones. It’s cost-effective, better for the environment, and the market—made up of ~19,000 independent funeral homes across the U.S.—is ripe for healthy disruption. In a world where all the talk is about AI, I feel very little FOMO and am increasingly drawn to non-AI innovations like the built environment. There are still numerous opportunities to contribute time or capital to great companies reinventing tangible things—often in exchange for equity at more realistic prices.
🎼 What I learned this week
I spent a lot of time this week thinking about the concept of source.
Peter Koenig and the peeps at Work with Source define source as the person who takes the first action on any project—and therefore, the first risk. That first action could be anything: making a phone call, buying a domain, opening a bank account, or creating a deck.
According to Koenig, all project breakdowns stem from failing to recognize who the source is. It sounds almost too simple, but in my experience, it’s true. When source isn’t acknowledged—by the person who is source or by the project’s helpers (best exemplified in a founder-employee relationship)—things tend to go awry. We all have that friend who claims they could do it better than the founder. Maybe you’re that person right now. Or maybe you’re the source of your latest project but afraid to fully own the responsibility that comes with it. I’ve played all three of these roles, and truth be told, everything goes better when I know—and own—where I fit into the equation.
It would be easy to assume that being the source is an ego thing, but I think it’s the opposite. Being the source doesn’t mean you’re right or that you know more than anyone else. It just means you took the first risk—and because of that, you likely feel (and deserve) more financial and creative ownership over the thing you started. That’s fair, right? We can work with that, can’t we?
The best part about this source concept is that once you know where you fit in, you can find projects sourced by people you truly align with. And you can choose to bring your own life’s work—your own source—to the project.
Most of the time, we’re helpers, not the source—whether as employees, investors, consultants, or even just guests at a friend’s weird themed dinner party. (“Helper,” by the way, isn’t my word—it’s part of the Work with Source framework.) Either way, identifying and acknowledging the source—the person who stuck their neck out first—feels like a good way to minimize conflict. Because at the end of the day, you’re always free to throw your own damn dinner parties.