Lightbulb Moments Deserve to be Shattered
Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting an extremely bright and articulate college student at a mentor-matching event through Startup Summer. He was eager to share his new business idea with me. “Oh, you have an idea?” I asked. “Let’s hear it.” He excitedly responded:
“Okay, so, I want to create a better erasable pen. Ya know, all of the erasable pens on the market right now either write in crappy blue ink, or the black ones only write in grey, and they look like pencil. I want to create an erasable pen that actually looks like it was written in ink and feels good to write with.”
“Cool man.” I responded. “Mind if I challenge you a little bit?” I asked. He nodded.
“Are you obsessed with pens?”
He looked confused. “What do you mean?” He responded.
“I mean, do you wake up every morning thinking about pens? Do you talk about pens with new people that you meet at a bar? Do you collect them and engage in pen forums on Reddit?”
He laughed. “Obviously not” he said with an amused smile on his face. I joined him in his laughter.
“Well there you go, dude! Abandon that idea.”
It is time that we shift the narrative surrounding a “business idea”. I meet students and recent graduates every week and am constantly asked, “how do I find a good idea? Where do I start?”
My response: “you don’t.”
Romain Vakilitabar said in Chapter One of Startup Vault,
“if you feel like you have a lightbulb moment, take that lightbulb, throw it on the ground, and hear it shatter. Ideas are useless.”
So, what approach should you take instead? I encourage you to start with a problem. What pisses you off? What makes you want to scream? What need is not being met in your community? Start there.
Romain is the founder of PathosVR, and quite possibly the most genuine and empathetic person I’ve ever met. PathosVR creates empathy-based virtual reality films to allow viewers to feel connected with humans around the world. Romain found himself distraught over the lack of compassion and empathy around the globe.
Rather than coming up with the idea to create virtual reality films, he explored this problem until exhaustion. And then he explored it some more. Through all of the research, the conversations with people, the hypothesis testing, the late nights and early mornings, he landed on his product.
There is a huge difference between a product, backed by data, and an idea, backed by a gut-feeling.
I met with another student yesterday for coffee who was excited to share her new business idea with me. She had come up with the idea just a few days prior.
“Okay, so I want to build an app that displays all of the people around you within a 20-foot radius who share common interests, so going up and talking to a stranger in a coffee shop isn’t so daunting. The app will give you topics to talk about.”
“Cool.” I responded. “Mind if I challenge you a little bit?” She nodded.
“Why?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” She responded.
“Why do you want to build this app? What will this app do to make the world a better place?”
She smiled and looked skeptical. She wasn’t quite sure how to respond.
Together, we dove deep into the problem that she was truly looking to solve. We both recognized that humans are shy and have a fear of rejection; definitely a problem worth looking into. She walked away with the motivation to talk to one hundred people in the next few weeks to explore their deepest fears.
The value of our conversation will motivate her to get out of bed every morning to learn more about this problem. The “idea” on how to solve it will definitely change as her users react.
Start with a problem, not an idea. Explore that problem until exhaustion. Then, explore it some more. The idea will flourish from the exploration.
Here’s a great exercise from the Chapter One Workbook of Startup Vault to help you get started:
THE PYRAMID APPROACH
Step 1: Pull out a large, blank sheet of paper. Make 3 sections: “Things I’m good at”, “Things I’m curious about”, and “Problems in my community”.
Step 2: Spend about ten minutes filling out the lists in the upper left and upper right sides of the page. Don’t be modest — this is a private exercise. What are you truly good at? Write those items down. All of them. What are you truly curious about? Write those items down. All of them. Now, spend at least half-a-day filling out the bottom list. Take this list with you when you go out. Observe the world around you…what are ALL of the problems that you recognize? Anything that you can think of, write them down.
Step 3: Pull out a box of colored pencils or markers. Now, we’re going to get a bit messy. You’re going to draw lines connecting the various items that could fit into the same category. Feel free to get creative here, and use different colors for different categories.
Example:
Category 1: Dancing + Obesity or Dancing + Health and fitness
Category 2: Working out + Kids can’t pay attention in class
Category 3: Economics + Homelessness
Category 4: Mobile technology + Kids can’t pay attention in class
Step 4: Keep drawing lines. Soon, a triangle may appear for one color! When that happens, you’ve found the intersection between something that you’re good at, something that you’re curious about, and a problem worth solving in your community.
BOOM. There’s a potential business concept worth exploring!
When you’ve found a problem worth solving, something that you’re actually skilled in and truly curious about, you will be so motivated and obsessed with solving it that you won’t be able to stop.
Now, this exercise is far more effective than waiting for an idea to pop into your head. The most exciting part is that you may can approach solving the same problem in infinite ways. The ideas on how to go about solving the problem will constantly change. One idea could be an after school dance program to help kids avoid obesity. Another idea could be an interactive, at-home dance lesson for anyone looking to have fun and stay fit.
I’d love to see your progress on this exercise! Please do not hesitate to reach out to me at Jake@EyesightCollective.com to share your story.
