The greatest Entrepreneurs see opportunity where others do not. They capitalize on a gap that exists in the market or economy and use it to their advantage. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to learn to recognize the gaps in the market that can be filled in some way by your product or service.
If you can present a compelling reason to investors and to consumers why what you offer fills a consumer need, you will be successful. Many folks who’ve heeded to this – the likes of Anand Mishra– have gone to do great things in their respective fields.
Lesson from eBay; see the opportunity
Prior to the launch of eBay, if people wanted to sell their old things, they would be limited in their choices. The odds most likely being that they would host a garage sale, and take whatever they can get for it. As you may expect, a garage sale is only limited locally and rarely attracts many people let alone the right buyer. Garage sales typically only attract people looking to score things at a bargain and negotiate for the lowest price possible.
The creation of Ebay provided a great opportunity for people to auction off their old items, collectibles and anything else that they want, with the ability of the items to be purchased by anyone in the world. This also meant that even with the selling fees that are associated with placing the product online, they have an opportunity to get the most amount of money.
This is a great illustration of how the founder filled a market need and managed to create one of the most successful buy-and-sell online sites.
Lesson from Mercedez: Listen to your gut
Mercedes-Benz is a household name worldwide. It stands for power, sophistication, class, style and influence. It all started when Karl Benz invented the first true car in 1885/1886. He solved one of the biggest problems of the world and as many entrepreneurs would love to say ‘made a dent in the universe’.
What if, instead of building a car, he had asked the people for suggestions for improving transportation?
He would’ve got answers like, ‘we need horses with six legs’. The truth is people have no clue what they want. They can help you improve the existing but to create something new, you need to listen to yourself. As Peter Thiel puts it, we need to go from 0 to 1 rather than 1 to 2. When we go from 0 to 1, we create something that didn’t exist before but when we go from 1 to 2, we improve existing things.
What if Benz had let the market dictate his decision and looked for things that had a scope?
I don’t think Mercedes-Benz would have existed. Karl Benz listened to his gut and everyone who is building something new needs to do the same.
Your gut can make the best decisions because it is made by your unconscious mind. You may not know it but your mind makes these decisions based on everything you have ever seen or experienced since your birth.
