An Attempt to Explain the Most Difficult Concept in Entrepreneurship

Most people think the purpose of entrepreneurship is to build and sell a product. That’s wrong. The purpose of entrepreneurship is to capture a market opportunity. The building and selling of products is a mechanism entrepreneurs can use to capture market opportunities. This may seem like a subtle distinction, which is part of what makes it difficult to grasp, but all great entrepreneurs understand the difference. If you want to become a great entrepreneur, then you need to learn the difference, too.

Why entrepreneurs focus on their products

Prior to launching their own ventures, all aspiring entrepreneurs have the same relationship with businesses as everyone else in the world: they experience businesses as consumers. Whether the restaurants our parents took us to as toddlers or the first time we pointed toward a toy in a store and said, “Mommy, I want that,” our formative relationships with businesses are as consumers of their products. Because we spend most of our lives purchasing and consuming products, we tend to think products are the focal point of every successful business, and everything else about the business orbits around the product.

Think of your relationship with businesses like your relationship with our solar system and the broader…