A bunch of mice were having trouble with a cat who was creeping up on them and killing them. The mice got together to brainstorm ideas that would allow them to avoid being jumped by the cat. We know the rest of the story. A young mouse suggests they tie a bell around the cat so they can hear him coming. Everyone was excited by the idea until another mouse posed the question about who would bell the cat.
If you are anything like me, you must encounter numerous situations where you ask yourself, “Why hasn’t anybody solved this problem?”
Many interesting businesses are started by people who asked the same question and then went ahead and solved the problem because no one else had. But to be successful, a business requires more than an interesting problem to solve. It is more important to ask the real questions.
Why aren’t a billion people doing it if it’s that easy and obvious?
What is the biggest hurdle and how does my idea address it?
What unique skill or knowledge do I bring to the project?
While all three questions are equally important, I’m going to focus on the second one here. Often, we focus on the solution to the pain point. But that is akin to spraying pain-numbing medicine on a fracture. It completely misses the real problem. More importantly, the real problem is harder to solve.
For instance, aged parents with no physical support is a growing problem in India as children move away in search of better prospects. Assisted living facilities are one solution to this problem. However, it does not address the problem of that segment that wants to grow old in place. My knee-jerk reaction was to create an organization that trains and places women from remote places with no opportunity of employment in these houses. But as I studied the problem more, I realized the real problem was how to get these women to leave their homes, families, and farms to go live in a new city or town. The solution required creating job opportunities for their husbands, school openings for their children, and medical access for their aged. This understanding put the solution out of my reach since the financial outlay and practical know-how were beyond me at the moment.
When confronted with a problem, taking a step back and simulating the entire solution is often a good way to identify whether it is a solvable problem, the complexity of the solution, and the total cost of the solution.
Does this mean that we shouldn't chase hard problems? Quite the opposite really. The hard problems are the ones to chase because they are the ones that have the chance for greatest returns. But it helps to chase the real solution rather than the perceived one.
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