It’s tempting to be a market pioneer—to be the one who shows up with the first charge card, the first personal training firm, or the first home computer. But it’s a challenging road. It can be thrilling work, but because creators focus on needs and not markets, they often fail to account for how difficult it is to activate those needs and turn them into a thriving market if one doesn’t exist yet. If you’re in market-creation mode, it helps to call it that and be prepared for how difficult it might be.
