Every problem I built a company around, I had the problem and couldn’t find solutions.

It’s not easy to get a market to buy a solution to a problem you have to tell them they have. What is obvious is when a market is buying solutions to an already identified and accepted problem from various sellers where none stand out as a leader. THIS is an opportunity.

TL/DR: start a business that solves an existing, obvious problem and do it better than the disorganized competition.

Got admitted to hospital, had surgery, and came home with a life altering change. Boom, instant invention muse. :/ 0/10 Would not recommend

Sell and ship premium mangoes. Not a complex problem to solve. Except through a very few sellers, most people do not have access to the mangoes I can provide. Indian mangoes,Thai mangoes, new varieties and classic mangoes.

Well… You could try to change your perspective about “problems”. The thing here is that we are often told that problems are something that drives everyone crazy, but in most cases a problem is something that you are so used to that you don’t even think of it as a problem.

For example: Is it a problem to wait 3 minutes for a cup of coffee? Perhaps not. But would it be better to get your coffee with just 2 minutes of waiting? In this case we don’t perceive the situation as a problem, but in contrast with a better scenario we can easily understand the first situation as a “problem” or ar leat “less better”

With find a problem and sell the solution you look out for really small problems that everyone has or enormous problems that 0.1% of people have but are willing to pay tremendous amount of money to solve it, even if they don’t realize the problem.

I can give you some real life examples:

• A construction company made a mistake during the foundation process and the cost to out everything down and start again would be something around 2M. They decided to hire a specialist in the field to see what could be done. In the end the consultant gave a solution that would save months of work for just 700k. He was paid 200k for his advice.

• In my country we often see homeless people on the street with a bottle of water and soap, a sponge, and a squeegee. They wait for the traffic light to go red and go clean some car windows to get a few bucks. Dirty windows are a common and small problem.

• A home owner needs money to pay some medical bills but can’t manage to find someone to buy his house and that’s why he decides to ask for a real state agent to sell it for him in exchange of commission.

In general we are always solving problems and being paid for that. The description of a job is exactly what kind of problem the business already know about and are willing to pay for someone to care of it.

Of course a genius is born from time to time and his ability to track problems and find solutions is beyond our comprehension but we don’t need the mind of a billionaire to earn a great living using the concept of finding problems.

Everything is a problem and nothing is a problem.

We don’t necessarily need an iphone to call family and friends, but still we perceive the lack of iphone as being a problem, and that’s why we buy it.

I hope it helps.

My issue was always finding what I was good at or finding something to solve. It wasn’t until later that I realized I had it wrong.

I don’t need to solve anything. I need to step into something that people WANT or NEED. Identify this, and then focus on getting really good at it. You’ll become an expert and be able to get more customers.

It’s not that easy. It takes discipline over motivation, but if you’re hungry for it, you’ll get it.

You gotta put yourself in the shoe.

For a simple example, you live in a climate where in the winter, it snows pretty bad. So you get your snow blower out and it’s even having trouble plowing through all the snow in your driveway. So as you’re having trouble, you ponder “ how can I make this problem go away? “. Then you start brainstorming and come up with “ What if I can find a way to emit enough heat from the blower to melt some of the snow as I’m plowing? “ then boom, The Frosty Melter 3000.

Now, is a good idea? Would it sell? Maybe. But you don’t know until you actually start researching and really look into what you’re solving and who you’re solving it for.

People get hit by cars everyday, seems like. But what people don’t know is that someone invented a device that could be put on the front-end of a car and if the car detects that you’re about to hit a human being, it deploys what looks to be like an angled blanket that’s scoops the person up and possibly saves their life from being flown several feet in the street.

You think people are using that invention? Could you imagine how innovative it would’ve been if it had reached a great potential? Don’t just think outside the box, analyze it.

My uncle, a successful entrepreneur, shared a crucial piece of advice with me during my junior high years. When I inquired about the key to success, he simply emphasized the importance of observation.

At the time, I didn’t quite grasp its significance. It wasn’t until I began working that I truly understood. Being observant means to closely watch and understand life and work, to identify issues within them and attempt to solve them.

While it’s hard to pinpoint specific methods for problem identification, most of the issues I’ve discovered are based on personal experiences in life and work.

First begin to start to identify your skills. What are you capable of making or doing? Are you good at programming? Sales? Talking? Gaming?

After step 1. Look at market opportunities near you and ask. Or simply join facebook groups and ask lots of active users: ‘Love your posts! If you could start a new company, what kind of company would you start, and what problems would you solve? To whom?’

Simply ask questions, find 20 people per market, look at the problems they have, which one could you solve with your time/skills?

After this step. You now have 4 problems in 4 markets. Email/message in each market 50 companies with your solution; ‘we are launching x-service, and would love the receive some feedback. And in exchange your company gets XX-discount. How much would you competitors pay for this solution?’

With just time and your specialised skill, you can do it. If you step out of your comfort zone, do not listen to advice given by those in your ‘economic’/‘stationary’ status. They will keep you down, they mean well, but don’t know better.

Be stoic, be curious. Good luck.

http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html