--- title: The starter capture checklist. subtitle: Twelve things to write down this week. If you do nothing else, do these. version: 1.0.0 parent: "Systems are strategy. (bonus pack)" sibling_titles: ["Expand your mind.", "Build the brain.", "Give it hands."] status: manual-pass draft audience: public, non-technical founders who finished the trilogy self_test: A reader can print this page, set 90 minutes aside, and finish all 12 captures by the end of one sitting with material that goes straight into the brain. --- # The starter capture checklist. Twelve things to write down this week. If you do nothing else, do these. One printed page. One sitting. Roughly 90 minutes if you go slow. These are the captures the brain wants first. They're concrete. They don't need a tool. A blank document and an honest hour is enough. When you're done, you have the substrate that lets every skill in the trilogy work on day one. The seven functions in [[seven-functions-deep-dive]] each have a deeper capture. This is the starter pack. --- ## The twelve - [ ] **1. Your last 5 lost deals and why.** Name each one. Write the one sentence that explains why it didn't close. Be honest. "Wrong fit" isn't an answer. "They wanted a fixed price, we quoted day rate" is. - [ ] **2. The 3 questions your team asks you most.** The ones that hit your phone twice a week. Write the question and the answer you give every time. - [ ] **3. The 5 numbers you wish you saw every Monday.** Not 20. Five. The ones that would tell you if the week is going to be a good one or a bad one before it starts. - [ ] **4. Your voice rules.** Words you never use. Phrases you always use. The tone someone gets when an email lands from you. The way you start a story. The way you end one. - [ ] **5. Your top 5 buyer objections + the reply you'd give to each.** Not the generic reply. The reply you'd actually type from your phone at 9pm if you had to close the deal. - [ ] **6. The 3 things that mean a project is finished.** Definition of done for your main offer. One sentence each. If you can't write three, write one. The line is what matters. - [ ] **7. The 5 senior hires or exits from the last 3 years + what you wish you'd known.** Three lines each. The one question you wish you'd asked in the final interview. - [ ] **8. The 3 decisions you've made twice in the last 12 months.** The ones you re-relitigated because nobody wrote the reasoning down. Capture each one now, with the reasoning, so the next time it shows up you don't pay the same hour again. - [ ] **9. The 2 client patterns you can already see.** The kind of client that drains the team. The kind that lifts it. One paragraph each. - [ ] **10. The 3 things you feel responsible for that you shouldn't be.** The work you keep doing because nobody else has the context. Naming them is the first step to writing them out. - [ ] **11. The 1 thing that breaks if you take a week off tomorrow.** Just one. The single point of failure that holds you in the building. Knowing it is half the work of fixing it. - [ ] **12. The one sentence answer to "who is the brain for, and what is it for".** Borrowed from the essay. Your answer becomes the filter for every page you write into the brain from here on. --- ## What to do with this once it is done Open a folder. Call it whatever you want. Write the twelve captures into 12 short pages, one per item. Plain text. No formatting. The next AI session you open, point it at the folder and ask it to summarise what it can see about your business. It'll give you a paragraph that surprises you. The brain isn't smart yet. It surprises you because you've never had your own thinking reflected back to you with that much pattern in it. That's the starter substrate. The trilogy was the why and the how. The seven functions deep dive at [[seven-functions-deep-dive]] is the next layer down per function. The bridge at [[second-brain-to-business-os]] connects this to the company-level work. The substrate is yours. The brain is the long game.