Season “How to Make 250K Per Year” · Episode 4
Minimalism in Business
What does one holiday photo have to do with the size of my business? · 3 November 2026
Take the photos from one holiday: say 1,500 pictures, and nobody ever looks through them. With phones we take so many that the only time we see them again is when Google sends a memory from a year or seven years ago. That is my favourite example of what minimalism taught me, and in the end it changed how big I want my business to be.
01
The one picture
From minimalism I learned that you usually need one picture, the one that switches the memory on and makes you say "wow, that was nice". For a memory, bringing the feeling back counts for more than having a lot. The question I still ask myself comes from there: do I really need this for my memory?
It started six, seven years ago, around 2019/2020, and it is an ongoing process. Am I perfect at it? No. For me the idea was to understand that having a lot of things does not give you more value.
You can test it on your own phone. Find your last holiday and count how many of those pictures you have opened more than once.
02
A billion against a million
The same question changed my business goal. For a long time I wanted to build a big business, a startup. Then minimalism came, and I could no longer imagine how a company worth a billion would give me more than one worth a million, because there are not that many things that really give you pleasure and fun.
The things that give them to me don't cost millions. Going to the gym every day, a walk with the kids, six weeks in Italy in the summer: none of that needs a business in the background that makes millions over millions. Even a really high-class gym, where you pay around 500 euros a month and can train for two hours every day, gives you so much for far less than that.
So if you are planning your own business, ask the photo question of your revenue target. Which part of it pays for the one picture, and which part is the other 1,499?
03
Business inside a normal life
My goal stopped being a billion-dollar business, or even a million-dollar one. What I want is to build the money-making into my normal life, so that it no longer feels like hustle and still gives me the things I want to do. Minimalism taught me to focus on what really gives me value.
That is also why the six weeks in Italy are a workation. I still read my emails there, and it doesn't bother me anymore.
None of this is a rule for you. If someone decides that making billions is the goal they want, that is totally fine, because freedom of decision means other people decide differently.
04
This week
Open the photos of your last holiday and find the one picture that switches the memory on. Then take one line of your monthly costs and ask it the same question: does this bring the feeling back, or is it picture number 1,500? I still ask it about my own things, and I am not done.
05
The open question
Minimalism settled a billion against a million for me. It has not settled 250K against more. Between those two the gap is much smaller, and I can't tell you yet on which side the one-picture question lands.
Next in this season: “Why I Don't Build a Startup”. Why I learned faster in start-ups than anywhere else, and still never built one with outside money.