I am now getting asked this question: “How do I find a good problem to solve?”

A lot more than the usual: “What do you think of my idea?”

While progress, it’s still not a good question.

Don’t get me wrong.

I still consider it great progress in mind shift –

prioritizing problems over solutions,

and it is a step in the right direction.

But, the question is impossible to answer as asked.

With an open-ended question like that, the possible solution-space is infinite.

The only way to narrow down is imposing some constraints.

What is driving your ambition – is it money, purpose, impact, something else?

What kinds of people do you want to serve?

What things interest you?

Notice the constraints I list are intrinsic versus extrinsic.

Things you would list under your “key resources”, for instance,

are extrinsic constraints.

I am not interested in those.

Entrepreneurs are in the business of creating something out of nothing.

Don’t limit yourself by the assets you currently have in your possession.

If you can tap into a big enough problem worth solving,

resources present themselves.

Use your intrinsic constraints to focus your problem search.

The more you narrow down, the faster the search will go…