Ready, Fire, Aim
Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat
Author: Michael Masterson
Length: 375 pages (~8 hour read)
Formats: Hardcover, Kindle, Audible
Grab your copy of Ready, Fire, Aim on Amazon here.
Why This Book Matters
If you’re stuck at a revenue plateau—whether it’s $1 million or $10 million—this book tells you exactly why, and what to do next. Masterson lays out a stage-based roadmap for growing a business from launch to $100 million in revenue, showing how your priorities and skills must evolve at each level. It’s a rare book that doesn’t just talk about growth, but breaks it down by stage with practical actions and mindsets for each. Perfect for entrepreneurs who feel like they’ve hit a wall—and want to scale faster, smarter.
Core Idea
Every business goes through four predictable growth stages—and each stage requires a different type of focus from the founder. What gets you to $1 million won’t get you to $10 million. The title says it all: act fast, learn as you go, and fix problems after you’ve made the sale. Execution speed and relentless selling—not perfection—are what drive early-stage success. Growth happens not by planning every detail, but by firing first, aiming second, and improving along the way.
Key Tactics & How to Apply Them
1. Stage 1: Selling Comes First
Before you refine your product, your brand, or your systems—you have to sell something.
How to apply: Don’t waste time on company structure, logos, or funding decks. Focus on finding your first scalable offer and a repeatable sales process. If you’re under $1 million in revenue, your only job is to sell. Talk to customers, test offers, and adapt quickly based on what sells.
2. Stage 2: Build a Marketing Machine
Once you’ve found something that sells, you need to systematize it so others can do it too.
How to apply: Create replicable campaigns, build a small marketing team, and install direct-response systems that generate leads and convert them predictably. Shift your focus from personal hustle to building scalable acquisition engines.
3. Stage 3: Operational Efficiency
As you grow beyond $10 million, the bottlenecks shift from marketing to operations.
How to apply: Standardize processes, upgrade your team, and introduce systems for fulfillment, customer service, and cash flow management. Professionalize without slowing down. Hire experienced managers and give them clear KPIs to own.
4. Stage 4: Innovation and Legacy
Once you’re at $50–100 million, your job becomes innovation and vision—not daily execution.
How to apply: Delegate operational control and focus on creating new products, opening new markets, or acquiring other companies. Think longer-term. Reinvent your role to stay energized and to drive the company’s next growth curve.
5. Speed Beats Perfection
You learn more by launching than by theorizing.
How to apply: Push out MVPs quickly. Test headlines, pricing, and offers with real customers. Don’t get stuck perfecting the backend before the frontend proves demand. Every delay is a lost sale.
6. Don’t Fall in Love With the Product
Founders often confuse passion with market fit.
How to apply: Fall in love with solving your customer’s problem, not with your idea. If people aren’t buying, pivot fast. Let the market shape your offer—not your ego.
7. Upgrade Yourself at Every Stage
What makes you great at one stage will likely hold you back at the next.
How to apply: Be brutally honest about your own limitations. If you’re great at hustling but bad at management, hire someone to scale the team. Read, hire coaches, and continually shift your role as the business grows.
Real-World Example
An info-product entrepreneur launched a small e-learning course and scaled it to $3 million by focusing solely on aggressive email marketing and upsells—ignoring back-office systems and branding. But growth stalled as fulfillment, refunds, and team drama piled up. After reading Ready, Fire, Aim, she stopped micromanaging and hired an experienced COO to install processes and manage people. Within 18 months, revenue doubled and she was back to focusing on high-value product creation and partnerships.
When to Use This Book
You’re under $10M in revenue and feel stuck or overwhelmed
You’re spending too much time on tasks that aren’t driving sales
Your team is growing, but your systems are not
You want to scale fast without becoming the bottleneck
You’re unsure what you should be doing as the founder at your current stage
Grab your copy of Ready, Fire, Aim on Amazon here.