Month: January 2020

It’s taken me years to understand the old startup mantra of: “Make something people want.” It’s simple. However, like most simple things, it’s not necessarily easy.

I have a tendency to conflate “something people want” with “something that sounds cool to me.” What are things people actually want? A good place to look is where they already spend their time. Even better is how they already spend their money. 

I once had a startup idea to make a new, better version of Mint.com. You know, one that actually worked. Sounds cool, but do people want it? Do they pay for it now? No, not really. What do they actually want/pay for? Credit cards. Bank accounts. Financial planning. Wealth advisory.

When building a company, offering something people actually want can save a lot of agony. The next step is also simple: make it 10x better or cheaper.

Sometimes I wonder why people don’t share more of their expertise online. And then I try to do it myself, and half the time I’m wondering: “Why would anyone care?” 

Daniel Vassallo’s twitter thread on building an information product and getting customers is great, and helps assuage my concerns. The gist is simple:

1. regularly share tidbits of your experience,
2. ideally around a single theme, and
3. engage with people that respond to you.

You don’t have to be an expert, but it does need to be your experience.

People follow in each other’s footsteps. Something that seems trivial or embarrassing to me may be exactly the thing that someone else needs to hear. Tell your story, bit by bit, and slowly, but surely, people tend to gather around and listen. At least, that’s been my experience.

One day, I’m going to wake up and have a book written. This kind of project typically requires months or years of tearing your hair out. My goal is to do it without any stress.

How will I do it? Easy, one brick at a time. Or in this case: 140 words.

Writing (and editing) 50,000 words makes me nauseas. But, writing 140 words a week seems doable. Some weeks I won’t feel like doing it (like right now). However, because of the low hurdle of success, I will probably do it anyway. This creates a positive feedback loop. It’s hard to fail, so I will develop momentum — a virtuous cycle of positive reinforcement. I’ve written about this concept before, calling it Minimum Viable Habits.

In this way I will build a cathedral.