If you have thought about becoming self-employed you might see writing a business plan, raising money or good marketing techniques as top priorities. But before you can perform these activities you need to understand the thinking behind entrepreneurship.
Being successful as an entrepreneur is about having an “accurate insight into the causes of human unhappiness”. Do you understand human needs and challenges?
“...every properly ambitious business is in some way trying to fix things for other people”
If you have an original way of solving consumer problems there is a place for your products or services in the marketplace.
“It may be easy to think that all the big problems out there already have thousands of fixes.”
Despite this assumption there remains a vast number of opportunities in our largely capitalist economy.
As long as people experience frustration, dissatisfaction and inconvenience there will be potential business opportunities waiting to be realized.
For example there are basics needs that will always require new and innovative solutions such as, deciding on your career path, finding a place to live or maintaining a stress-free life.
“The biggest first step to take towards entrepreneurship is therefore to learn to study your own unhappiness and what might possibly heal it for you and others.” This is often what drives innovation in business.
Once this first step has been understood entrepreneurs will need to master the practical elements of running a business.
Understanding human need and developing new solutions is key. Many businesses don't see profits because they copy a model or solution that is already being used by their competitors.
“If your insight into what makes people unhappy is razor sharp, and your solutions bold...your business will stand a high chance of making money and benefiting humanity too.”
