I read recently there are only three questions in life worth asking oneself: 'Am I having sex? Do I have a family? Am I intellectually stimulated?'
With three yeses you're basically in paradise, two will bring you happiness and one means you at least can survive.
I personally have a fourth one which is 'are my trousers comfortable?', but overall that three-question approach seems like a good, simple model for personal development.
I've got a similar three-question model when I'm having business ideas pitched to me.
Do I get excited by the idea? Have the team got the skills and energy to nail it? And is the investment at the right price?
Three yeses gets them my money, two gets them my respect, one gets them a free drink on their way out.
Richard Reed talks about how to turn a good idea into a great business
Be Your Own Boss on BBC Three is me putting this model into action. On a larger scale.
In the series you'll hear me banging on and on about the quality of the idea and the quality of the team as I expose myself to 500 pitches from new entrepreneurs looking for investment.
There are some where I don't rate the idea but can see talent in the entrepreneur (step forward the Porridge Power lady), there are some where the idea would do much better if it could choose itself a new team and there are a few where the planets align and both are good.
And that's when we get to talk business.
I hope people enjoy watching the show. But more than that I hope it helps people who want to set up their own company.
It's designed to, by showing both what it takes to set up a business and what investors look for in funding start ups.
And as people watch the stages unfurl it will hopefully trigger the reaction I am most looking for in the viewer - one of, 'hang on, I could do that'.
And if you do find yourself thinking that when you're watching, you're right.
So switch the telly off and go get started on your business plan instead.
Richard Reed is the co-founder of innocent Drinks and appears in Be Your Own Boss.
Be Your Own Boss is on Wednesday, 19 September at 9pm on BBC Three. For further programme times, please see the episode guide.
Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.
