College Applications

Build Community

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Launch a real community space and grow it past the point where sign-ups alone would count — proof is 10 members still actively participating three weeks in.

Coordinate Volunteers

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Recruit and coordinate 5+ unpaid volunteers on a real initiative to completion — no financial incentive, no authority to compel attendance.

Run Event

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Plan and run a real community event with named volunteers who confirmed their roles in advance — nobody involved can be ordered to help.

Improve Volunteer Retention

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Establish an honest baseline of who returns for a second volunteer initiative and why others don't, then show the measurable change in return rate.

Improve Campaign Delivery

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Deliver a volunteer-led advocacy, civic, or community campaign — not a commercial marketing campaign. Proof requires a non-commercial campaign context, volunteer team, and a community impact metric (not revenue or conversion KPI).

Get Your First 10 Paying Customers

3 milestones · 8 weeks

Sign 10 real customers who pay for your product or service.

Validate a Business Idea

3 milestones · 6 weeks

Run experiments to confirm real demand before building.

Make Your First Hire

3 milestones · 10 weeks

Define the role, recruit, and onboard your first employee.

Grow Your Product to 1,000 Users

4 milestones · 16 weeks

Scale from 25 strangers to 1,000 core-action completions — entirely through distribution, not feature-building. Every milestone requires measuring completions of the core action, not signups or page views.

Get Into an Accelerator

3 milestones · 12 weeks

Get accepted into YC, Techstars, or a top-tier accelerator program.

Find Product-Market Fit

3 milestones · 20 weeks

Reach a 40%+ 'very disappointed' score on Sean Ellis test with real users.

Build and Exit

3 milestones · 104 weeks

Build a product to a point of acquisition and complete a successful exit.

Launch Your First Product Publicly

5 milestones · 8 weeks

Ship your product to strangers — people who find it without being personally invited — define a specific success metric before building, and publish a public retrospective with real numbers.

Write and Publish a Research Paper

3 milestones · 24 weeks

Conduct original research and publish a paper in a peer-reviewed journal or conference.

Master Statistics for Data Analysis

5 milestones · 10 weeks

Apply descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, regression, and A/B test design to real datasets — every milestone requires working with real data and documenting the decisions, not just the calculations.

Reach French A1

4 milestones · 8 weeks

Introduce yourself, handle simple exchanges, and understand slow clear speech in French. Unlike app-based learning, every milestone requires proof of real human communication — not a score on an app.

Write a Research Proposal (High School)

0 milestones · 5 weeks

Pick an answerable question, review 8+ real sources, and write a dated plan with hypothesis, method, analysis and ethics.

Run an Original Study (High School)

0 milestones · 8 weeks

Run your planned study, keep an honest log, analyse it with the planned test, and defend the results and their limits.

Submit Research for Peer Review (High School)

0 milestones · 6 weeks

Submit your paper to a real peer-reviewed student journal or judged science fair and answer the reviewers point by point. Acceptance is not required.

Master Technical Writing (5 Published Pieces)

0 milestones · 12 weeks

Research, write, and publish 5 technical articles or documentation pieces that get real readership and positive feedback.

Deliver 10 Public Talks (Any Venue)

0 milestones · 24 weeks

Deliver 10 prepared talks at meetups, conferences, or public events — recordings or attendance sheets as proof.

Get First Paid Writing Client

0 milestones · 6 weeks

Land and deliver a paid writing engagement — content, copywriting, or ghostwriting — with invoice paid.

Build a Writing Habit (365 Consecutive Days)

0 milestones · 52 weeks

Write and publish at least 200 words every day for 365 consecutive days — public log or newsletter as proof.

Publish First Short Story

0 milestones · 10 weeks

Write and publish a short story in a literary magazine, anthology, or reputable online publication.