Three stages. It always seemed so easy back then. There is something about working for someone else, where things that should scare you, seem very far away.
You never see all the pieces when you are so close to the machine.
Motivated and focused, I had a plan, a how and a why… all I needed was a who. Who am I doing this for?
Seeing the problems you have and having a passion for what you want to do makes decision making simple. You become the person you are selling to. I’m going to make this thing, with these values at this personal cost, because I want it.
Simple?
There’s a bit of advise I heard once before. I have no idea where or who said it, but it’s a brilliant proof of life (if you will).
You can walk into any big grocery store, walk down a designated aisle and find powdered orange juice. It’s something you can pick up and hold, it is physically there. Personally, I would never buy it and I can’t think of a person I know that would buy it. But the fact that it exists in a store, shows that someone, somewhere is buying this. So someone is making it and further, someone is selling it.
A complex little niche, it exists in isolation. There’s never going to be an aisle of powdered orange juice, just a bubble. Completely removed from the fresh produce section. It’s the same in so many ways, but it stands out. Isolated to its own market.
Brilliant…
What it came down to in my mind was then quite simple. I need to filter my product through people. Finding the person interested in the ‘powdered vision’ if you will.
If I was able to take three people, three individuals that had no clearly defined similarities. Consider each of them with their own specific lifestyles and general characters, create something for each of them and see how they would react. This would solve for my who? I guess a process of elimination.
So the trial began, three figures I respected. Each with very different values and completely different stories, they would be my the filter to my market.
The Old man…
The Colonel…
The Craftsman…
