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person, problem, solution

concept · in 20 sources (2019–2024)

Start a business from a person with money and their problem, never from a solution.

Sources by year: 2019: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2024: 7

Also known as: problems list, problem hunting

Questions

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2024

  • 2024-02-06 · How to Start Your First Business in 48 Hours — Ali: Following Noah Kagan's Million Dollar Weekend, Ali calls "I need the right idea" a myth that holds aspiring entrepreneurs back: you start a business by deciding to start one, then find a process to come up with the idea. — 00:00:29
    • The hundreds of entrepreneurs Ali has interviewed all describe a customer-first approach: start not with an idea but with the people you would like to serve, because a business solves a problem for someone willing to pay for it. — 00:04:46
  • 2024-03-08 · 4 Steps to Making $10,000/Month in Your First Business — recommendation: Ali: To choose a business idea, Ali advises looking into what Daniel Priestley calls your OMV, your origin story, mission and vision, since you are much more likely to succeed in a business you are interested in. — 00:01:57
    • Ali repeats the point he has made throughout his channel: a business is a vehicle that solves problems for people, ideally people who can pay, so business ideas are ones where you can provide value. — 00:04:08
  • 2024-05-21 · A Beginner's Guide to Making Money with Online Courses — recommendation: Ali: To people who feel they have nothing to teach, Ali says they probably do: they could list five to ten things they have learned in the last ten years. — 00:53:11
    • Ali says you do need something to teach, but if you have no skill you can start today, learn one over two years and then make a course about it. — 00:55:12
  • 2024-06-12 · Start a Business While Working Full Time 🧑‍💻 — recommendation: Ali: To start a business alongside a full-time job, Ali says, first decide whom it will serve: ideally people you can easily reach, who have money and whom you are excited to serve; meeting all three is playing business on easy mode. — 00:00:00
  • 2024-07-09 · If I Wanted to Make $10,000 as a Student, I'd Do This — recommendation: Ali: To choose what to sell, Ali advises finding the Venn diagram of things you are good at, things you enjoy and things there is a market need for. — 00:04:44
  • 2024-12-03 · 5 Simple Steps to Earn $10,000 Writing Online — Nicolas Cole's step one: instead of imagining the most legendary version of yourself, ask where you already have an information advantage. — 00:07:02
    • Ali's takeaway from Cole's step one: you only need to know a little more about something than the person you are selling to, not everything about the topic. — 00:08:00
  • 2024-12-27 · My honest advice to someone who wants passive income — recommendation: Ali: For anyone stuck without a business idea, Ali points to Noah Kagan's Million Dollar Weekend and its first-chapter Now, Not How challenge: ask one person you respect for a business idea. — 00:12:01
    • To find a business idea, Ali looks at the intersection of four things: what you enjoy, what you are good at, what could be useful to others and what people would be willing to pay for. — 00:22:54
  • …and 6 statements more in 2024 — all statements of 2024

2023

  • 2023-01-10 · Which business would Alex Hormozi start today? #shorts — recommendation: Alex Hormozi: To choose a business, Alex Hormozi looks at three buckets, your parents' work, your past jobs and your current interests, and asks in which of them you could help someone do a thing better. — 00:00:30
  • 2023-05-10 · 5 Steps to Start Your First Business — Daniel Priestley's first step is ideation: come up with at least ten business ideas, then work out which one, or which two or three, would be best. — 00:01:08
    • For a first business, Ali says, by far the most important part of the Hedgehog Concept is the problem you solve for your customers: focus on being of service rather than being selfish. — 00:02:53
  • 2023-09-27 · Starting A Business is Easy, Actually — recommendation: Ali: To find the skill for a feel-good business, Ali often asks himself how he would spend his time if he won the lottery and had $100 million; once cocktails on a beach get boring, most people want to do something of value to others, and for him that is reading, writing, learning and teaching. — 00:07:55

2022

  • 2022-02-04 · How to Make Money Online — recommendation: David Perell: As you work, David Perell says, you may see a big hole in the market, as the Collison brothers did with payments when founding Stripe and Sahil Lavingia did when starting Gumroad. — 00:34:28
  • 2022-08-31 · How to Earn Money Doing What You Love — recommendation: Ali's first step to monetise a passion: instead of asking how to make money from, say, playing the guitar, ask who the people are that you could add value to. — 00:03:53
    • Ali's second step: list the problems those people have, since money is about solving problems, and ask whether your passion could solve one of them. — 00:03:53
    • Ali's third tip: combine different passions or interests into a killer combination, which is more likely to attract an audience who will pay for it. — 00:05:35
  • 2022-12-19 · $100m CEO Alex Hormozi's advice for entrepreneurs #shorts — recommendation: Alex Hormozi says you need no novel idea to start a business: look at what others do and do it a little better, solving a specific problem you know from your own skills or past experience sucks for people, even if others solve it too. — 00:00:38

2021

  • 2021-04-15 · 9 Passive Income Ideas - How I Make $27k per Week — Ali: The way to get people to pay you, Ali says, is to identify a problem they have, solve it and charge for it; do those three things and $100 a month from a digital product is very doable. — 00:18:08
  • 2021-04-22 · The 4 Hobbies that Improved my Life — Ali says learning to code unlocks your brain to see business ideas everywhere, because you know what is possible with apps, websites and even physical products. — 00:02:35
  • 2021-06-13 · 8 Surprising Habits That Made Me A Millionaire — Ali's third habit, the entrepreneurial diagnostic mindset: a good business idea identifies a problem people have, finds a way to solve it and ideally one people will pay for, so in daily life notice whenever something really sucks. — 00:02:55
    • Many people email Ali that they want to make money but have no good business idea; he says that is because they are not looking at the world through the lens of what problems they could create solutions for. — 00:03:53
  • 2021-10-08 · The Best Book I've Ever Read about Making Money — recommendation: Ali's practical tip for a producer mindset: when out and about, think about the business side, for example how McDonald's makes every fish burger taste the same. — 00:11:17

2020

  • 2020-10-04 · My BIGGEST Rejections in Life — recommendation: Ali's sixth lesson, his advice to people asking whether a business idea will succeed: use your unfair advantages, what would be very difficult or impossible for others to replicate. — 00:19:08

2019