Lesson 1 — Problems people already pay for

Learn

Good businesses are rarely built on new problems. They are built on old problems that are still annoying.

Look around your own street. The café owner answering the same five questions on WhatsApp all day. The tutor juggling bookings in a paper diary. The realtor writing the same listing description forty times a year. None of these people wants "AI." Every one of them wants Tuesday to be easier.

The test that separates a real opportunity from a nice idea: someone is already paying for this — in money (a service, a part-timer, software they grumble about) or in hours (their own evenings). Existing spend is the one signal that never lies. If nobody pays anything today, you have to create the habit *and* win the customer, and that is two businesses, not one.

So the assignment is observational, not creative: list where the people around you already bleed time or money on repetitive, describable work.

⚡ Do

Write down five businesses or people you personally know. Next to each, one recurring task they visibly waste time on. No solutions yet — naming pains is the skill.