When it Comes to Dealing With Problems, Humans Are Funny Creatures
Entrepreneur Office Hours - Issue #290
I’m currently driving a rental car while mine is being repaired (thanks to getting rear-ended at a stoplight by someone apparently more interested in their phone than the traffic around them). The rental car has this feature — new to me, though I realize probably familiar to many of you — where it dings gently whenever the car in front of you starts moving, and you haven’t moved yet.
My initial reaction was amusement. Here we are, at a point in human history where we've accepted that people are inevitably going to stare at their phones while stopped in traffic. So instead of relying on people to change a clearly unsafe habit, we've engineered a technological workaround to accommodate the behavior.
It’s a little weird, isn't it? The original messaging was very clear: "Don't use your phone while driving." But that message has effectively shifted to, "Since you're probably using your phone anyway, here’s a gentle reminder to help you stay alive and be more respectful of other drivers on the road."
Is it just me, or does this type of “innovation” seem to perfectly capture something fundamental about how we approach problem-solving? And not just in driving… in life, society, and especially entrepreneurship. Humans, in general, aren’t great at changing deeply ingrained habits or behaviors, even when they're harmful. What we’re remarkably good at, though, is adapting. We accept our messy, imperfect human nature, and instead of endlessly pushing against our flaws, we create solutions that help us navigate around them.
Entrepreneurs are particularly skilled at this. They don't always try to build perfect worlds; they build products, services, and solutions that work within the reality we already inhabit. And while idealists might prefer we fully correct every problematic behavior, entrepreneurs understand that genuine innovation often involves working around human nature rather than expecting to fundamentally change it.
In other words, next time you're frustrated by a seemingly unfixable problem, pause and ask yourself: Am I trying to force people (or myself) to fundamentally change? Or am I better off adapting to the realities of human behavior? Because ultimately, entrepreneurship isn't about creating the world we wish existed. It's about effectively navigating the world as it actually is.
-AD
This week’s new articles…
The Slide in Your Pitch Deck That Screams “I Don’t Understand My Customers”
Potential investors can hear that scream from a mile away, and it makes them close their checkbooks.
Learn to Ask the Hardest Question in Entrepreneurship
If you’re a startup founder who can’t ask this one question, you’re never going to be able to build a successful company.
Office Hours Q&A
QUESTION:
Hey Aaron,
Everyone always says we need to talk to customers before building a product, but how do I actually find them if I haven’t launched anything yet?
-CM
Let’s begin by rewording. Yes, lots of startup gurus say “talk to customers,” but they don’t actually mean “customers.”They mean “people.” Specifically, people who resemble your potential customers. People with the problem you’re trying to solve. People who don’t care that you haven’t launched, because they’re not signing up for your app — they’re just helping you think. In other words, you’re looking for people int he right general vicinity of a problem space you’re interested in exploring.
Now that we know we’re not trying to get people to pull out their wallets on Day 1, we can move on to step 2, which is finding them. And where do you do that?
Figure out where they’re already hanging out. That might be:
Reddit threads
Discord communities
Facebook Groups
Slack workspaces
Social media comment sections
LinkedIn posts
Meetup events
Zoom webinars
Parking lots outside PetSmart (don’t ask)
My point is they’re out there somewhere. You just have to stop thinking like a founder, and start thinking like a spy. Where do your people live? What do they read? Who do they follow? What subcultures are they a part of? Go there. Lurk. Ask questions. DM politely. Buy coffee. Post observations.
No website. No logo. No product. Just one sentence:
“Hey — I’m working on something for people who [insert problem]. Can I ask a few questions?”
If you do this 10 times, you’ll get 3 replies.
If you do it 50 times, you’ll get patterns.
If you do it 100 times, you’ll have insight that 99% of startups never bother collecting.
So no — you don’t need a launch. You need a list of names, a curious brain, and a willingness to talk to strangers. Which, if you’re building something new, should probably be your job anyway.
Got startup questions of your own? Reply to this email with whatever you want to know, and I’ll do my best to answer.