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Should you create a product that you love or one you believe other people will love?

On the one hand you have those who feel that whatever you create should be your passion. It should spring from within and be something you believe in even if your close friends or family laugh and call you crazy. They say some of the greatest innovations in the world have come from folks who’s products no one loved or thought would work at first glance. I think Gary Vaynerchuk of winelibrary.tv would fall into this camp.

On the other hand you have those who say business isn’t about you, it’s about the customers. Starting businesses around your passion is selfish and shortsighted. The key is to get a pulse on the market, larger culture, the masses and ask what it’s looking for? Then create a product that taps into their felt need. Sure it may not be your favorite thing in the world but at least it will be profitable. I think Michael Gerber author of the E-Myth would fall into this camp.

Of course the paradox of business is that it should be both. Novelist Frederick Buekner wrote that vocation is “where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” If you were forced to choose one over the other I would go with passion every time. Yet, to be wildly financially successful it will take both working in tandem.

Photo Credit: Arenamontanus