Identifying your Passion
If you haven’t noticed a business problem yet, but cannot shake the desire to start your own business, then preparing your mind for finding a business idea may be the best advice that I have come across. Again, from Paul Graham.
Preparing your mind starts by identifying your passion.
There are multiple definitions of passion. Ultimately I believe Simon Sinek best defines passion as your Why. In his book Finding Your Why, Chapter three, he discusses a process that may be helpful in this effort.
Once you have found your why, think about where your skills, or skills that you can reasonably attain, lie. Better yet think about where a unique combination of your skills lies; where domains may collide. For instance, maybe you have a degree in biology and just finished an intro to programming course. If nothing comes to mind, try thinking about what it is that you were doing the last time you were in flow. This is usually a sign of competency in skill matched with sufficient interest.
Next find the edge of the domain that your skills lie within (see my next post), the intersection of which, will be the ideal problem space to think within. For me, the intersection of these (#1 in the figure below) is how I define my passion.
Noticing problems
After all that, you effectively have found a direction; yet, still no business problems. From here finding your business idea is a matter of noticing problems, that you and other people have. Engage in project-based learning, build things that seem interesting. Solve problems in your passion space, operate in the “tinkerer” space as seen below. You will begin to notice things that are missing in the world. People’s unsolved problems.
Keep an open mind. Talk to people about their problems. Look for gaps in the world, things that are missing. Notice that one interesting problem that you have, that others have, that you can solve. As seen above, the intersection of these problems and passions are where the best problems are found.