Hi, my name is Matt and I'm a Slowlaner.

[The Patriot Way]

Not really sure how this whole introduction post is supposed to go, but pretty sure it should be brief. I'm naturally long-winded, but here goes. I'm 36, live in LA, and work at a movie studio staring at a computer screen all day. A nutless monkey could do my job.

Read Four-Hour Work Week about ~1.5 years ago and loved it, opened my eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship. Read TMF last summer which resulted in a paradigm shift of my thinking, causing me to discard most of what I was taught by Tim Ferriss. My experience with TMF was similar to my experience watching The Matrix for the first time. It was something I had always felt and toyed around with in my mind, but never was able to really put it into words. Working five days a week to make someone else rich has always been the splinter in my mind. Finished Unscripted last October, and that really cemented the ideas of TMF into my brain.

All day long I try to ask myself "What do people need?" and constantly think of the cancer corollary and CENTS. I have published an e-book and sold a few T-shirts (which I promptly stopped after reading TMF). My current project is a social network and media exchange platform for independent filmmakers which probably isn't going to make it past the landing page stage, as it's been up for over two months and still has only one signup. I don't want to be that guy who jumps from idea to idea, but it seems I had the process backwards: instead of developing a product/business in response to the market and creating the value that people crave, I tried to create a service that I believed the market would want once it was realized. I have also started writing a new e-book which is more for my own enjoyment and the hope that I can help others, rather than creating income.

Currently, I am scouring the Internet and observing trends to find a need that I can fill, and devote all of my time and energy to. I have many weaknesses and am desperately trying to learn all I can, but I know that I have something to offer the world and am struggling to find out what that is. I feel guilty practicing the piano, which I love, because I feel I should be working on developing a business. The same feeling creeps in when I'm working out at the gym or reading the news, as I feel myself aging and am increasingly anxious about "running out of time" and "withering older". I'm conflicted about reading books, because I thirst for knowledge and perspective, but MJ described reading another book as action-fakery. So all in all I don't know what the hell I'm doing, but at least I'm aware of it I suppose. I hope to have meaningful conversations here, help others along in their journey, and ideally gain a sense of direction and insight from the writings of other members.

Sorry, the "brief" thing didn't work out too well. But thank you to anyone who read my intro.

 

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[DavidJLeys]

Welcome from another new guy!

I can certainly relate to your post a bit. Always going at what I believe the market wanted... Never seems to work out.

Good luck on your journey.

 

[SeanP]

Not really sure how this whole introduction post is supposed to go, but pretty sure it should be brief. I'm naturally long-winded, but here goes. I'm 36, live in LA, and work at a movie studio staring at a computer screen all day. A nutless monkey could do my job.

Read Four-Hour Work Week about ~1.5 years ago and loved it, opened my eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship. Read TMF last summer which resulted in a paradigm shift of my thinking, causing me to discard most of what I was taught by Tim Ferriss. My experience with TMF was similar to my experience watching The Matrix for the first time. It was something I had always felt and toyed around with in my mind, but never was able to really put it into words. Working five days a week to make someone else rich has always been the splinter in my mind. Finished Unscripted last October, and that really cemented the ideas of TMF into my brain.

All day long I try to ask myself "What do people need?" and constantly think of the cancer corollary and CENTS. I have published an e-book and sold a few T-shirts (which I promptly stopped after reading TMF). My current project is a social network and media exchange platform for independent filmmakers which probably isn't going to make it past the landing page stage, as it's been up for over two months and still has only one signup. I don't want to be that guy who jumps from idea to idea, but it seems I had the process backwards: instead of developing a product/business in response to the market and creating the value that people crave, I tried to create a service that I believed the market would want once it was realized. I have also started writing a new e-book which is more for my own enjoyment and the hope that I can help others, rather than creating income.

Currently, I am scouring the Internet and observing trends to find a need that I can fill, and devote all of my time and energy to. I have many weaknesses and am desperately trying to learn all I can, but I know that I have something to offer the world and am struggling to find out what that is. I feel guilty practicing the piano, which I love, because I feel I should be working on developing a business. The same feeling creeps in when I'm working out at the gym or reading the news, as I feel myself aging and am increasingly anxious about "running out of time" and "withering older". I'm conflicted about reading books, because I thirst for knowledge and perspective, but MJ described reading another book as action-fakery. So all in all I don't know what the hell I'm doing, but at least I'm aware of it I suppose. I hope to have meaningful conversations here, help others along in their journey, and ideally gain a sense of direction and insight from the writings of other members.

Sorry, the "brief" thing didn't work out too well. But thank you to anyone who read my intro.

Hi there,

I tried to find this piece Steve Eakin of Startup blackberry.com sent in a weekly update on his site to link to it. Failing to locate it (for appropriate attribution), I will paste it here since I found it a rather nifty way of scoping out ideas/needs. I hope you find it useful. Note, I am NOT affiliated with Steve in any way.

_______________________

“So, what is the system for coming up with ideas?”

It is easier than you think.

We are going to do this by making a list and writing out 10 problems you have in your life on a regular basis.

This could be anything and should not be terribly specific (think high level here.)

Here is a sample list to show you how easy this is:

Problems I face regularly

1. Going to bed too late
2. Changing the baby
3. Walking the dog
4. Not enough energy in the morning
5. Going to the gym earlier
6. Don’t make enough time to read
7. Too much screen time
8. Shoveling snow (in the winter)
9. Screwing with my thermostat too much
10. Getting distracted when I write

Notice I didn’t say “going to bed 8 hours before I wake up” or “keeping the baby still and calm when I change his diaper” - I kept a high level view on it so I don’t limit myself for tomorrow’s lesson.

That took me a whole…. 3 minutes, tops.

And what did it get me?

10 potential ideas that I can focus on and test to see if there is anything real there.

If not? No big deal, I have 3 more minutes to spare.

If so? Well, then things get interesting : )

I want you to do this right now.

Take out a notebook and write out at least 10 problems that you face regularly - the more the merrier.

Done? Great!

You took your first step: You listed out some problems - ANY problems that you have on a regular day.

This next lesson should be a bit of an eye opener:

EVERYONE’S GOT PROBLEMS!

Maybe a few other people share the same problems as you... what do you think? Possible?

It is time to see if you’re a lone whacko with problems that no one else has (if so, maybe think about them differently so they aren’t problems anymore? I dunno, just saying it can’t be that big of a deal if no one else is griping on it.)

Or….

If your problems are shared by a bunch of people.

Chances are, your problems are universal. And that is a very good thing ($$$$)

Don’t believe me?

Good! You shouldn’t take anyones word for it when coming up with ideas. Go validate that others feel your pain.

Ask your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, anyone and everyone that you can. Real people with a real conversation. Don’t go into any solutions or anything too detailed, just find out if people share your problem and, most importantly, find out just how big of a problem it is.

When you’re done, go all stalker on your problem.

Google it. Search Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, etc, etc.

The more you see and hear about your problem, the more likely that you can turn it into a money making app.

Seriously. This is how 99% of all the big apps that you've ever heard of were planned.

Take your notes from earlier and rank them based on how much people share your frustration.

Now it’s time to take things to the next level and start to actually plan out your app.

This is where things really start to go crazy…

No matter how you plan on making money from your app (we’ll talk about that tomorrow) - you need one thing and one thing only.

SALES!

Even if your app is going to be free, you are still selling people on the idea to download it and hopefully use it every day.

The only way to make sure your app will sell is to validate it.

But how do we test our app before we even built it? How do we validate?

First, lets take a step back.

Remember, so far we’ve identified A PROBLEM that you share with others. To validate, we have to find THE SOLUTION.

“But… what the heck is the solution?”

Simple, really. The solution is someway to make the problem less … bad.

Someway to make it easier to deal with. If you can make it go away completely, that's awesome! But it doesn’t have to be gone completely, just easier to deal with.

Let’s look at some real world examples:

Problem: “I don’t like to hail cabs.”
Solution: Hail them from your phone.
App: Uber.

Problem: “I have nice clothes that I don’t wear anymore.”
Solution: Sell old clothes from your phone.
App: Vinted.



Problem: “I hate tracking all of my bank accounts.”
Solution: Show all financial accounts one one screen.
App: Mint.



Problem: “I cant read comic books on the go.”
Solution: Read comics like an eBook.
App: Comics by ComiXology.



Problem: “Sharing images on Facebook is a pain in the a$$.”
Solution: News feed with nothing but images.
App: Instagram.

These are real life apps and each one is worth a ton of money. Uber is one of the most valuable companies in the world. ComiXology sold to Amazon for a bunch of money. Mint sold to Intuit for mega-millions. Vinted has a value in the millions. Facebook ended up buying Instagram for A BILLION DOLLARS.



https://gallery.MailCheat(Chimp).com/a54ddb8fe4d01b367d84c7211/images/20abad3e-7e85-46c4-864d-f91e543fe34c.jpg

(Seriously. WTF DO YOU DO WITH A BILLION DOLLARS!?!?)

All of these apps were built on a problem that ONE person had. All of them proven because multiple people shared that pain. All of them are apps that make the problem a little less crappy.

What is your solution?

For your chosen problem (or problems if you are an overachiever,) write down as many solutions that you can and talk to people about it.

If they like any of your solutions, you might be sitting on a gold mine.

Be awesome,

- Steve

Steve Eakin
Startup Black Belt
w: startupblackbelt.com