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Hey fam,
Yesterday, I wrote something that was surprisingly difficult to write.
I told you that the Top 1% Creator System series was coming to an end.
Not because we ran out of lessons, not because there was nothing left to say but because every meaningful journey eventually reaches a point where the student must continue walking without the teacher holding their hand.
At the end of that email, I asked some questions. One was a simple question:
“What changed for you?”
I expected a few replies.
What I didn’t expect was the flood of stories that followed.
Stories from creators, entrepreneurs, builders, brands.
People quietly fighting battles nobody else could see.
As I read through the responses, I realized something.
This was never about newsletters.
It was never about business.
It was never about algorithms, audiences, money, or growth.
What we were really talking about was transformation and one message in particular stopped me in my tracks.
It came from David.
A subscriber who has been quietly reading for months.
This is what he wrote:
“Before I found your newsletter, I thought business was about making money.
Every day I woke up thinking about sales, followers, customers, and revenue.
I was constantly stressed because every month felt like survival.
Then one of your emails said something I’ll never forget:
‘Stop building income. Start building assets.’
I don’t know why that sentence hit me so hard.
Maybe because I realized I had spent years running on a treadmill.
Every dollar I made depended on me working harder.
The moment I stopped working, everything stopped.
That email changed the way I saw business.
For the first time, I stopped asking how to make money and started asking how to build something that keeps creating value.
I launched my newsletter.
Started building my audience.
Created my first digital product.
And although I’m nowhere near where I want to be yet, I finally feel like I’m building a future instead of chasing one.
More importantly, I don’t feel lost anymore.
“Thank you for that.”
I sat there for a while after reading that.
Not because David talked about revenue or because he talked about products.
Not because he talked about growth but because of one sentence.
“I finally feel like I’m building a future instead of chasing one.”
That’s it.
That’s the entire reason the Top 1% Creator System exists because there are too many talented people spending their lives chasing things they should be building.
AI Agents Are Reading Your Docs. Are You Ready?
Last month, 48% of visitors to documentation sites across Mintlify were AI agents, not humans.
Claude Code, Cursor, and other coding agents are becoming the actual customers reading your docs. And they read everything.
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Your docs aren't just helping users anymore. They're your product's first interview with the machines deciding whether to recommend you.
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Mintlify powers documentation for over 20,000 companies, reaching 100M+ people every year. We just raised a $45M Series B led by @a16z and @SalesforceVC to build the knowledge layer for the agent era.
Chasing money instead of assets, chasing attention instead of trust, chasing followers instead of relationships, chasing shortcuts instead of systems.
And the saddest part is that most people don’t realize they’re doing it until years have passed.
The world teaches us to work harder but rarely does it teach us to build smarter.
Jeff Bezos didn’t become one of the wealthiest people on earth because he sold more books.
He built a system.
Mark Zuckerberg didn’t build wealth by collecting users.
He built a network.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin didn’t create wealth by answering questions.
They built infrastructure.
The top 1% have always understood that wealth is rarely created through effort alone.
It’s created through assets that continue producing value long after the work is done.
That’s the lesson David understood and perhaps that’s why his message affected me so much because every creator eventually reaches a crossroads.
What happens when you throw out the GTM playbook
That investor was wrong. Gamma is now worth $2B, with 50M users and more than half their growth driven by word of mouth.
They're one of 6 AI-native startups in HubSpot for Startups' free Bold Bets Playbook. Replit grew revenue 50x after half the team pushed back on the strategy. Ramp generated 100M+ views from a single stunt. Clay's co-founder wouldn't hang up a sales call until the prospect DMed him in Slack.
Each one took a GTM risk most founders would never greenlight. Each one paid off.
One path leads to endless hustle, the other leads to ownership.
One path leads to exhaustion, the other leads to leverage.
One path asks:
“How can I make more money?”
The other asks:
“How can I build something that outlives today’s effort?”
As the Top 1% Creator System approaches its final chapter, I find myself thinking less about the lessons I’ve shared and more about the people reading them.
The creator launching their first newsletter, the entrepreneur building their first audience, the person taking a chance on themselves for the first time.
The dream that hasn’t happened yet.
The future that’s still being written and if these emails helped even one person move from chasing to building, then every word was worth writing.
Now I’d like to hear from you.
What changed for you?
What lesson stayed with you long after you closed the email?
What idea altered the way you see business, wealth, creators, or life itself?
Hit reply and tell me.
Tomorrow’s newsletter will be another reply from a subscriber.
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The Top 1% Creator System may be ending but your story is only getting started.
PS; If you’ve been thinking about joining the Top 1% Creator System.
Here It Is:
The System The Top 1% Don’t Want You To Access
— Soft Continent