Lesson 7a Create What's Missing

What's missing? It's an important concept. A lot of folks are really just taking what's already there and just iterating on it, remixing it, and it doesn't solve something new. And this is part of the issue. So for the last 100 years, our society on this planet Has attempted to and monetized every single moment from the time you wake up in the morning till the time you go to bed at night, and then throughout the night as you sleep, across every day, different themes on the day and the hours during the day. And it's only getting more and more competitive across that human landscape. But behind that landscape, There's billions, trillions, hundreds of thousands of tiny little things that need to happen in order to deliver that product or service from 12:01 AM, 12:02 AM, 12:03 AM to like 8 AM, 9 AM. Coffee, lunch, medicine, food, water, transportation, manufacturing, the whole thing, supply chain, yada yada. Communication. And if you're not creating something new or creating something that's missing in that 3-dimensional space, not just the linear timeline for humans, but also the horizontal thing that needs to— all these little things that branch out that have to occur in order to deliver that thing— materials, people, ideas, etc. etc., across all of that. If you're not creating something new and putting that into the world, how do you expect to grow, right? I'm either competing head-on to displace something that's already there, like, oh, a whole society, a whole country is drinking coffee every morning, and then I'm gonna try to make tea happen. It's gonna be an uphill battle. You— so the best, like, actually carve out a new space, something that's missing, something that We don't know we need until someone delivers it and shows that we need it. And, uh, yeah, we've commercialized and productized life in such a way, and nature inherently is free. We made it up in time to see the sun come up here, and it's still dawn. I mean, this camera is pretty great, so it's It's picking up a lot of stuff, but the sun literally just came up. So something that's missing, what, what is that? How do you even figure that out? Well, the best way is you solve your own problem. I think this is the disconnect that happens when you're trying to design for someone else, and it's like, oh, they would love this, or oh, like, they definitely want this. It's different because you don't understand the nuance. And like, you may be off by miles and millimeters, but then when it's something for yourself and you place yourself on that buyer's side, on the other side of that equation, the consumer rather than the creator, there's a million little nuances that somebody completely gets wrong. Like, oh, so take a cup of coffee for instance. I go and buy it and it's like, oh, this coffee is a little too bitter. It has this weird taste, like, that's strange. Or the way the lid goes on the cup and it's like a plastic, or like the material of the cup itself is like, I just hate it. It feels like it's soaking into my coffee and it just gives me a bad flavor. And so I'd rather pay another dollar for something, you know, ceramic rather than paper or Styrofoam, um, and or plastic, right? So, or glass maybe. And so it's these little nuanced things, a million different decision points that are a huge deal in your mind. But, you know, as a creator, it's like you may just skirt over. It's like, oh, you just need a cup to hold it. And like, that may have been great like 2,000 years ago when we didn't have a lot of cups. Now cups are pretty ubiquitous. So, you know, what's missing? That's the hard piece. You could iterate a thousand different things on once you land on like what's missing. But if you're just creating another t-shirt and slapping a slogo or a logo on it, a slogan and a logo, I guess we coined a new term that's missing a slogo. It's like a spork. I don't think anybody wants a slogo. So there, therein lies the other point, which is. Just because it's missing and you fill it doesn't mean people want it. Maybe there's a good reason we only have a fork and a spoon and not a spork, and a reason we have a logo, um, instead of a splogo, um, and a slogan. Yeah, so that, that's really it. Um, you got to put something out there that's new, different, solves a problem, carves out a unique space in the market that hasn't existed before, solves your own Problem. Otherwise, like, what are you doing? And yeah, it can feel like, oh, I just want to like put this thing out there and I've got a lot of creative energy and I need to just like get something. But it would be wasted time if you skip past that too quickly because you'll end up spending all this time, money, energy, and then you'll throw it out there in the market and like no one will care. Like no one gives a shit. They're too busy. There's too much other stuff competing for time and attention. So. Unless there's like this new spot that doesn't exist. Um, yeah, it's gonna be rough. It's gonna be rough waters. So how do you do it? I think you just have to think about yourself. It's like something you're really into, really geeked about, and you're like, you know, or like maybe even your favorite brand or a couple favorite brands, and you're like, gosh, I really like— they're not doing this thing and I really want to do this thing. And then you, you search around and you're like, oh wow, actually Other folks aren't doing this thing either. And interestingly, there's this weird gap that nobody noticed. Zoom in on that, make that. All right, that's the intention for today. Create what's missing and, uh, you'll grow as long as you solve that problem for yourself first. That's it. Have a good one. Peace.