Identify Opportunities and Innovate. (Part 01)

(Book 01: Unpacking the Journey to Billionaire Status)

Welcome back! As a Sri Lankan with aspirations of achieving great wealth, there are several key strategies that you can consider to increase your likelihood of reaching the upper echelons of financial success.

In this chapter, we will delve into the first tip to unpack the Journey to Billionaire Status which is... “Identify Opportunities and Innovate.”

Identifying Opportunities:

The first step towards identifying opportunities is to ask yourself some questions before starting a business. Does your product fulfil a market need, solve a customer pain point, or improve an existing product? It's essential to understand that people don’t buy a product; they “hire” it to do a job.

For instance, street vendors identify opportunities to sell their products to those who are willing to hire their products to fulfil their needs. Water to quench thirst, books to spend time with, garlands to offer to their gods, and candles and statues to express their beliefs. These entrepreneurs identified gaps in the markets and created innovative solutions to fulfil the needs of their customers.

Similarly, high-profile workers hire thick fruit juice and milkshakes to keep them occupied and full during their morning commutes. Every apartment now has a grocery shop inside, and every car park at a mall has a car wash facility. Introducing new air coolers and air conditioning during the hot summer, you may see an umbrella advertisement during the long rainy days, cricket team jerseys during the World Cup, or IPL season. Whenever there is a business, it means someone has found an opportunity.

Innovation:

New-market disruption occurs when a company creates a new segment in an existing market. If you identify such an opportunity, make a product that’s less expensive and of “good enough” quality to create and capture a new market segment. For example, gadgets have evolved from a furniture-sized radio to a 02-inch piece of earbuds. Each time it changed to a form of disc and Walkman to pen drives, someone found an opportunity to feed the people what they wanted.

Innovation is crucial to success in any industry. Whether it's fintech, tech, healthcare, or any other industry, being able to innovate and offer something unique can set you apart.

Start with yourself

When searching for potential market needs, start with yourself. In your everyday life, what processes or tasks bother you? What’s the job to be done that you haven’t quite found the perfect product to fulfil? Many successful entrepreneurial ventures began with a personal problem in the founder’s life.

For instance, after Neil Blumenthal lost his prescription glasses and couldn’t afford to buy new ones, he created an eyewear company that provides inexpensive, stylish glasses: Warby Parker.
Another example is the ride-hailing app Uber. The founder couldn’t find a taxi to go home after an event, which later led him to introduce an app to find the nearest available taxi to get it to your doorstep.

Research with real people

Observing and gathering feedback from real people enables you to consider their perspectives and gain a deeper understanding of their motivations, frustrations, fears, and desires. This can help you conceptualize whether your product addresses a job to be done and the size of the audience that could benefit from it.

Throughout my life, I have participated in a variety of meetings with young people. I have led several teams in religious and non-religious communities, attended national gatherings, and worked in various environments, including office settings, where I have had the opportunity to motivate and inspire teams. Every time I spoke, I noticed that people were excited to hear what I had to say. However, I eventually realized that I wanted to express my thoughts in writing instead of merely sharing them orally. So, I decided to create a blog to share my ideas and thoughts with my followers.

Conclusion

Identifying opportunities and innovation is critical to building wealth. It is essential to identify gaps in the market and create innovative solutions to fulfil the needs of your customers. Being able to innovate and offer something unique can set you apart from the competition. Start with yourself, research with real people, and create a product that fulfils a market need, solves a customer pain point, or improves an existing product.

Get ready for an incredible journey! This book is divided into 6 parts, and the first part consists of 7 amazing series. We've already shared the first series on our blog, and the upcoming series is going to blow your mind. Are you prepared to uncover the secrets to Finding Opportunities with this series? Stay tuned for the ultimate tip!s!

View other Series from this Part here.

Series 01 - The Art of Observing Opportunities for Wealth Creation