What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 summary

Problems often harbor unseen opportunities. Rather than reflexively avoiding difficulties, it pays dividends to explore them – you may uncover real potential. Consider a few famous companies that pivoted only after their initial products flopped. Messaging heavyweight Slack started life as a failed gaming startup. As the company floundered, the founders noticed their internal communication system showed real promise. So they repurposed it for a wider audience. Photo-sharing giant Instagram likewise began as a traditional social media platform that failed to take flight. But the app’s unique photo filter feature clearly resonated with users. The founders doubled down on visual sharing and the rest is history.

The founders of Slack and Instagram ultimately succeeded thanks to their open, tenacious attitude, and willingness to work through problems. Giving up at the first bump dooms you to miss out on chances to brainstorm solutions. Take Jeff Palmer, for example – an entrepreneur who introduced an electronic organizer called Zoomer. It swiftly tanked. Rather than sulk or rage quit, Palmer took an unconventional step – he personally called every single person he could find who had purchased his failed Zoomer device. 

In lengthy conversations, he probed what exactly they hadn’t liked or found useful about the product. From this qualitative feedback, Palmer realized there was an unmet consumer desire for better personal organization and scheduling capabilities while on the go. His next product, the Palm Pilot, directly addressed these frustrations and became a runaway mainstream success. Palmer’s motto holds true: problems will always crop up – but addressing them head-on remains the only viable path forward.

The initial step in tackling problems? Correctly identifying them by thoroughly studying all facets of an issue. Product designers call this need finding, which involves deeply analyzing exactly where and how end users are frustrated. As Einstein once cautioned, "If I had an hour to solve a problem upon which my life depended, I would spend the first fifty-five minutes determining the proper question to ask”.

At other times, finding those unresolved needs means daring to think beyond the status quo that feels familiar or “right”. For example, look at the ultimately game-changing innovation of balloon angioplasty – inserting and inflating a tiny balloon to open up a clogged artery. Before this technique was developed, the established norm for dealing with arterial blockages was highly invasive bypass surgery. When balloon angioplasty was first floated, most surgeons were openly skeptical, simply because it was so radically different from the customary way things were done. But the concept took off once doctors recognized it addressed the hitherto unmet need for a less dangerous procedure.

The truth is none of us are immune to this ingrained “problem blindness”. We unconsciously assume that because we personally don't perceive a pressing unsolved need, none exists. But much of the time, we simply remain oblivious to recognizing our own unmet needs. Health company 23andMe fundamentally challenged long-held assumptions – that only a select priesthood of medical experts could ever access an ordinary individual’s genetic testing history and health information. 23andMe’s founder, Anne Wojcicki stubbornly navigated both deep-set regulatory barriers and consumer wariness about genetics testing. But she never lost confidence that democratizing personal DNA insights could empower millions.

So, to start re-examining your own implicit assumptions and blindspots, take an audit of your daily habits – waking time, social circles, and leisure activities. List out alternatives. Actively hunt for those small frustrations that often betray wider unmet needs. Then pick a habit and experimentally try to shift it. See what emerges. As the actor Alan Alda memorably put it, "Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.”