Give Them What They Really Want

You may have heard this quote, attributed to Abe Lincoln:
 
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.“
 
Here’s my version of that quote:
 
If I were starting a new business, I would spend 80% of my time on these two things:

1. Finding out if a market actually exists for the thing I want to sell.
2. Determining exactly what my target customers really want.
 
Unless you’re totally obsessed with these two factors, your business will fail.