What insights does the motto “Make something people want” offer to entrepreneurs?

This statement might sound like common sense, but it's practically the golden rule for all successful startups, especially for early-stage entrepreneurs. It acts like a North Star, guiding you when you feel lost.

Let me break down what this maxim truly means and why it's so important.

1. The Core Message: Don't Just Please Yourself

Many startup failures begin with "I have a brilliant idea," rather than "I've discovered a problem many people share."

Founders easily fall in love with their own ideas, believing their product is too cool or their technology too advanced. So, they work behind closed doors, spending a year or two and exhausting all their savings to build a product they deem "perfect." When they launch it, they find that no one uses it, or no one is willing to pay for it.

It's like a chef who only focuses on making elaborate "molecular gastronomy" dishes that they personally love and are technically challenging, without considering that the diners around the restaurant just want a hot bowl of beef noodles. No matter how exquisite your dish is, if it doesn't solve people's hunger, it's all for naught.

The phrase "create something people want" constantly reminds you: Don't build in a vacuum! Your idea isn't important, nor is how impressive your technology is. What matters is whether anyone truly needs what you're making.

2. What People "Want" Isn't Necessarily What Users Say

This statement has an interesting extension. Sometimes, if you directly ask users, "What do you want?", they can't articulate it themselves. It's like before the invention of the automobile, if you asked people what they wanted, they would say, "I want a faster horse."

Here, "want" refers to deep-seated needs and desires. People didn't want a "faster horse"; they wanted a solution to "get from point A to point B faster and with less effort."

Therefore, your task isn't simply to listen to what users say, but to observe their behavior and understand the difficulties and frustrations they encounter.

• How do they currently solve a particular problem? (Even if the method is clumsy)
• At which step do they spend the most time or feel the most frustrated?
• If your product could solve that frustration for them, how would they react?

For example, before cloud storage existed, people saved files by transferring them via USB drives or emails, which was cumbersome. What they "wanted" wasn't a "better USB drive," but a solution to "access my files anytime, anywhere, without losing them." This was the opportunity Dropbox saw.

3. It Guides Your Actions: First, Make a "Functional Ugly Thing"

Since the goal is to "create something people want," validating "whether people want it" becomes the top priority.

How do you validate it? Not by writing a perfect business plan, nor by building a fully-featured app. The fastest way is to:

Build the simplest possible version (what we often call an MVP, Minimum Viable Product), even if it's ugly and has few features, as long as it solves that core problem.

Then, immediately give it to real users to try.

• Will they use it?
• What's their expression after using it? Is it "meh" or "wow!"?
• Are they willing to pay a little bit for this "ugly thing"? Even just a dollar.
• Will they proactively tell their friends about it?

If the feedback is positive, congratulations, you might have found the right direction. The next step is to gradually make it better and more complete based on user feedback. This process is like a snowball rolling downhill; you constantly revolve around the core of "what people want," and the snowball will grow larger and larger.

If no one pays attention to you, that's okay too. Because you've invested very few resources, it's still not too late to pivot. You can go back and rethink whether the problem was misidentified or the solution is wrong.

In summary:

This maxim's insight for entrepreneurs is essentially a pragmatic, user-centric approach to doing things:

• Starting Point: Begin by solving a real problem or fulfilling a strong desire, not by pursuing a "cool idea."
• Mindset: Stay humble; don't fall in love with your idea, but with the problem you're solving and the people affected by it.
• Action: Quickly build a functional minimum viable product, test it in the real world, and use real market feedback to guide your next steps.

It transforms entrepreneurship from a romantic story of a "genius inventor" into the reality of a "craftsman" constantly refining their work. Your job isn't to build in isolation, but to co-create something with your users that they truly can't live without.