The only book you need to read if you're new to launching stuff, and reread if you've been doing it for a while
Let's face it there are millions of books you could be reading but only some you should be.
Most of the ones that are worth your time are about foundations, the tools you need to get started, and then add your own learnings along the way via trial and error.
One of my all-time favorites (that I have read way too late in my own journey) is the book I want to talk about today 👇
What book?
Why?
Time and time again I see people building products that are looking for a problem (myself included).
And that's because plenty of us approach talking to customers the wrong way. We ask if we should build x or if y is a good idea.
We're talking about ourselves but we're not listening enough.
What I learned
Instead of asking if what you have is a good idea, ask people about their problems, find out how much these problems pain them and what they've done so far to solve them.
You will be surprised how many people actually don't really care but just want to tell you what you want to hear or are venting about some issue that doesn't even bother enough to do a simple google search.
That's it, the concept is simple yet you will learn so much more the bias of the foundation you're building on.
After all you can make the best product in the world if nobody cares enough to pay you don't have a business.
Of course, this isn't all so make sure to read the book, it's a super quick read. (not affiliated but I wish I was 😱)
You
What was the best book you've read to help with your Journey?
Which book did you wish you would have found sooner?
Me
I'm Stefan from Niche Mates.
We're currently building a Transcription tool for YouTube videos and share our learnings over in our Blog that I'd love for you to check out if you liked this short article ❤️
Totally worth reading. Will check out book!
🙏
That was the biggest lesson for me. It doesn't matter if it's a pain or a problem. It matters how much of a problem and pain it is. This determines if people are willing to pay for a solution and if, ultimately, your business venture will succeed.
I, like I suppose lots of us, spend too much time on pains&propblems that people are not willing to dole out cash for.
Yeah sometimes it's mind-boggling what people cobble together in excel but they're fine with it because it's "good enough".
You see it and say there must be a better way but in the end, if you can't clear the threshold for them to try out something new and pay for it as you said, you will still fail.
For example, I've seen a decision tree built in excel that could be even just a Typeform and it would work 10 times better but they're fine with how it is 😁
Excel and other multitaskers are a great example.
I have the feeling that sometimes people simply do not realize the pain, or do not even want to give away control over the pain, as if their life depended on it. "Hours, days, weeks spent on an Excel model? How dare you take that away from me!" :)
Haha. They're just too used to it ;)
This is an important point.
There are many people who just come up with an idea and run with it, but they don't ask potential customers if their idea is solving a real problem.
Asking people if they need your product might save you time and money.
Btw the link is not working on my end! I found the book though, thanks for the recommendation.
My bad 😭
Seems like the site doesn't support https and I just assumed it would, should have checked. 🤦♂️
Yeah, the critical difference is how you talk about it. You shouldn't directly ask if people need your product but find out indirectly by talking about their lives and struggles.
If you ask someone do you need this product x? They will just lie to you and tell you what you want to hear.
Instead, try to do it without ever mentioning your product/idea.
In the end you will ofc extract from those learnings if people actually care about your product at all.
Yes, definitely it all depends on how you talk about it.
Regarding your question, the best book I've read is "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle.
The book emphasizes the importance of focusing on the present and not fretting over the past because it's gone and the future doesn't exist yet.
As I was going through my entrepreneurial journey, that idea proved very helpful to me.
I've read that. It's definitely good advice 🙏
Have you ever looked into stoicism at all?
It's a big thing there as well to be present, one of the hardest things these days with an infinite number of distractions 😁
Oh, tell me about it!
First time to hear about stoicism actually! Will definitely check it out.
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Yes, because we are usually too focused on "creativity" and not enough on solving problems.
There is always a need...just have to identify what and where
"Just" hehe
Listening to the audiobook version was good as it made it more dynamic and showed a real 'interview' style / conversation
I'd put "4 steps to Epiphany", because it doesn't only cover the interview process but the way to get startup of the ground.
Haven't read that one but it seems to be quite popular.
The Startup Owner's Manual was quite good I remember.
It maybe possible through amazon affiliates 🤷♂️
Not the best book but I remember trying what I read from Eat That Frog. It worked for a few days, I was postponing a few phone calls for a long while and it was taking space in my head all day long. One after another I did those calls every morning. And knowing that I'll do the rest in the next days, brought me some peace. Then it become easy and lost the charm. Also I started to look for unwanted tasks to handle first thing in the morning. Wasn't so healthy.
Apart from that, I've talked to many friends in many occupations about is there anything in your work life is so repetitive that I can computationally automate and save you time or money. There were no answers. If I pursue on the conversation, it usually ends with well I wanna sip on bacardi in hawaii while getting a paycheck.
Most of them probably hated their jobs but they don't think/know how to make it better instead they subscribed to Spotify and listen to good music while going to work to make themselves happier. They drink Starbucks latte because they could afford it thanks to their jobs. (Some fight club mentality here :)) But they can't point a single problem in their work lives. As I can't do it in my indiehacking life. I want customers to line in my door. The solution is to do marketing or find someone to do marketing and it's a dead-end cause I can't afford either one.
We fix things in our lives one way or another. It doesn't need to be the best solution. If we duct tape something and it works. We put a check mark on it and move on to the next. I think it's the safety mechanism of our brains if we kept thinking about what could be improved in our lives, we'd be doomed. It's either mom or dad or uncle test I think it's hard to get an answer for those questions. If not we could test ourselves and find a problem to solve and enjoy the bacardi.
It wasn't from a book but something made so much sense to me from a probably meeting recording. Looking for problems might be the wrong choice. For example most of us at least once targeted indiehackers, those who probably doesn't have much money to spend for growth or risk it. And the guy on the meeting was presenting an app for yacht owners. Simplest interface with a few API calls. A GPS and a weather app. If someone afford a yacht for their entertainment they probably wouldn't mind spending "a few more dollars" to make their yachting experience better.
Cars suppose to solve a simple problem, yet we have ferraris now.
Phones suppose to solve a simple problem, they become the biggest one. :)
There is gaming industry what problem they solve; Oh I can't kill my time enough! Of course there are underlying benefits like virtual achievements etc but linking problems with solutions directly not necessarily work all the time.
There are stand-up comedies for example. Who needs a laugh the most, depressed people. Does depressed people goes to those shows, nope. They go to a psychiatrist or an ice-cream machine. So who watches them. 🤷♂️
No worries mate, I'm just joking. 😁
You're right there are things that seem unnecessary and it's true that no problems are pressing / painful and there are still people making money with a solution.
But I think trying to find a problem that is super painful will make you more likely to have success, it's not the only way for sure.
Wait a minute, so you are aware of affiliate marketing which solves a huge problem for people who are trying to make money on their own terms. And you are not leveraging it?! Whaatt :) Just kidding.
When I think for a problem my mind directly goes to health related stuff. This part is conspiracy for sure but solving a problem in medication system makes you a great guy with a broken bank account. With all those years of study and investments. If you cure it you're done, if you repress it you're golden.
Mhh yeah it's also a very regulated, hard to change industry because it has a bunch people that have been doing shit the same way forever.
This means opportunity but also resistance to change that you will have to overcome.
It's something I'm also constantly thinking about but I know we don't have the resources to tackle this at all :)
Haven't read the book (yet!), but here's an initial thought/question I had about it:
Say you've achieved proper validation for your idea by following the principles in this book. You have a good understanding of people's problem, and have built a decent solution.
For prospective customers who have yet to hear about your app, should you use the same method (don't tell them your idea)? It seems counterproductive, since past customers who've already validated your idea can "speak for" potential customers who face the same problem.
Then validation is over.
What you are after is now sales...
The first few customers would be hit and miss.
But after getting a stable customer base...
Conduct a customer research, and ask them few questions.
What was going on in their life that made them buy your product.
What were they expecting
First time they thought of the problem
What would have stopped them from using you
Who were they comparing you to.
No, you can't automate this.
Once you've built a decent solution and gotten some initial customers, you can move from validating that people have the problem to validating that people are willing to pay $X for the solution that you've built.
Different validation methods make sense for different stages in the SaaS development process:
...
i will check it out.
not a big fan of books as the information in them is mostly stretched so the author has enough content to demand as much money as possible.
still, got recommendet 'zero to sold' on IH, interesting read for sure.
Think it depends. This book is quite straight to the point I think, it could be shorter but the value per page is quite high
i came across 'the minmalist entrepreneur' by Sahil Lavingia on the IH podcast. im gonna look into this aswell. have you heard about it?
I've heard about it but haven't read it. I will put it on my list (that's too damn long lel)
Thanks for the tip :)