Before you can seriously start practising a new skill, working hard at a new project or even start thinking about a new enterprise/opportunity/career move, you should start by asking yourself The $64,000 Question :
What interesting problems do I need to solve? Or what interesting problems will this new skill/new project/ new job allow me to solve?
I regularly use this question as a sort of compass that points me in the right direction.
As an example, I recently decided to teach myself to code in Ruby On Rails. Now unlike a lot of people learning to code, my starting point was not – which language is the most employable in 2015, or which language will allow me to earn the highest salary. (I dont need to code for a living)
My starting point was what interesting projects/apps would learning Ruby On Rails allow me to create vs learning another similar language (i already know JAVA/C++ via a CS degree from a very long time ago…).
When we started our bottling plant/soft drinks business, the challenge for me was not how do we make lots of money (although that is great if you can get it!), it was how do we solve the problem of competing in one of Coca-Colas ten largest global markets? How do we get brand recognition when our entire annual sales was less than half of Coca Cola South Africa’s marketing budget?
The key to asking and answering “What interesting problems do i need to solve?” is to pay attention to every last detail that this question demands, so that you can pick the right kind of goal.
Here are some guidelines for picking the right area to focus in:
- First, it must be interesting; this should be something that really stands out from the ordinary. Don’t worry about whether the entire solar system this side of Alpha Centauri will find the topic/project/app interesting. What is important , is whether you find the Topic/Project/Business interesting. You should at least try and ensure that it is interesting enough to not get lost in the background of your day to day life
- Second, it must be a problem. Without some form of conflict, without a struggle between what is and what can be, it is difficult for creativity or productivity to occur naturally. Problems tend to capture the imagination in ways that ‘exercises’ or ‘routines’ never can.
- Third, it must be a need of yours. Notice I use the word need and not want. While at the physiological level, needs are very basic (food, water, clothing, shelter, sex, etc), psychologically our needs are much more complex. A need is the kind of thing that eats at you until you find a way to satisfy it. A need is something that when ignored, makes things worse than what they should be.
- Fourth, it must be related to you. There are many, many problems out there that are interesting and need to be solved. Which challenges are you uniquely qualified to solve? Which challenges are you uniquely pained by if they’re left unsolved? For me , i am not that great at starting up businesses , but over the last 22 years, i have become really good at taking a existing startup business and helping it to scale. That is the challenge that i am uniquely qualified to solve – helping companies put in place the systems , processes that will allow them to scale.
- Finally, it must be solvable, or at least show promise of being solvable. Would we have started a soft drinks business in a First World market like Canada or the US? I am not sure we would have. Many of the challenges facing new entrants in these markets are not solvable , without a lot of money to throw at the problem. In a developing country on the other hand where buying two 2L bottles of Coke can easily consume up-to 10% of the average weekly wage – there are more solvable ways of competing against Coke (low price + great taste). There are lots of problems out there that would be great if we could solve them, but nothing seems to change about them. Fortunately, there are just as many that can be solved with sufficient motivation. Don’t waste your time on the impossible, feel free to settle for something challenging but surmountable.
Now that I’ve explained it in detail, I’ll repeat the question, and then I want you to take some time to think about a serious answer to it…
What interesting problems do you need to solve?