What Is a Need?

The Bottom Line: People don’t care about what you want to do. They care about their own wants and needs. The beauty of the free market is that it rewards makers in multiple ways. Those who satisfy people’s wants and needs are rewarded by the market. When makers create value, they capture some of that value in the form of compensation because people are willing to pay for their problem to be solved or their want to be satisfied. Those who make what they feel like making are rewarded by the pleasure of the process. If you’re making something for the pure enjoyment of it alone, that’s a hobby. If you’re building something to provide value to others by solving a problem or satisfying a need, that’s a business in the making.  

Next on this map, you’ll find a wide range of perspectives you can adopt to open your eyes to market gaps and opportunities. The approaches are not mutually exclusive, and it won’t make sense to use every tactic each time. Think of these as tools in a toolkit. Once you’re familiar with their benefits and how they work, you’ll increasingly see opportunities to put them into practice.