Saturday, October 31, 2026
In today's issue
The news: Goldman Sachs on small business AI use
Tool: Stripe Payment Links
Watch: Tim Ferriss on defining your fears
Try this: Write down the move you keep avoiding
Good morning {{first_name|friend}},
The day I turned 40, I lost my job, and my wife lost hers the same day. We lost nearly everything and ended up in a rental in Minneapolis.
Today's talk is about one way to deal with a situation like that: write the worst case down and look at it.
Quiet Win: the news
Goldman Sachs: small business AI use hits 86%.
Reported by ANI via NewKerala (Oct 24): Goldman Sachs' report "The AI Economy Is a Small Business Economy" found AI adoption among 2,473 surveyed alumni of its 10,000 Small Businesses program rose to 86% in 2026, up from 56% in 2024. Only 15% have fully integrated AI into core operations. Use for financial analysis and business planning more than doubled, from 18% to 42%. The findings describe surveyed program alumni, not all U.S. small businesses.
Almost everyone is trying AI, but few have built it into their daily systems. A solo founder who does that quietly is ahead of the pack. Start with one weekly task and write down its steps.
Tool of the day
Stripe Payment Links
Problem: you do not know how to take money without building a store or hopping on a pitch call.
Agitate: every unpaid “yes” that dies in your DMs is revenue you already earned and then talked yourself out of collecting.
Solution: Stripe Payment Links give you a full payment page in a few clicks. Share the link. No code, no website, no call.
Free tier: no setup or monthly fee. 2.9% + 30¢ per successful US card charge (checked on Stripe pricing today). Optional custom link domain is $10/month.
Watch
Why you should define your fears instead of your goals
Tim Ferriss · TED · 13 min
Ferriss walks through "fear-setting," a written exercise for listing the worst cases, how to prevent them, and how you'd repair them. It's quiet, private, and very effective.
Try this today (15 minutes)
Write down the one business move you keep avoiding. Under it, list (1) the worst that could happen, (2) how you'd prevent it, and (3) how you'd repair it. Keep it private.
Hit reply
What's the one move you keep circling but haven't made yet? Hit Reply. Just writing it to someone helps.
Quietly sovereign,
Sterling
Know another quiet builder? Share your link and unlock written worksheets at 1, 3, and 5 referrals.