What's Your Problem?
Problems are not the main event.
Most solopreneurs were taught one rule:
Look for problems.
Fix them.
Repeat.
It feels productive.
It’s incomplete.
Problems are not the main event.
They are one category of opportunity.
When you only see problems, you’re looking through a single narrow window.
The rest of the view is blocked.
Opportunity Windows
Opportunities don’t all look the same.
They appear through different windows—different ways of seeing what’s changing.
There are seven primary windows:
The Unexpected
Surprises, successes, failures.Incongruities
When reality doesn’t match expectations.Process Needs
Bottlenecks, friction, inefficiency.Industry and Market Changes
Shifts in structure, channels, or competition.Demographics
Population and generational shifts—the future that has already happened.Changes in Perception
New definitions of value, status, or risk.New Knowledge
Advances in science, technology, or ideas.
Each window reveals opportunity.
No single window tells the whole story.
Where Problems Actually Live
Problems show up most often in one place:
Process Needs.
Something is slow.
Something is broken.
Something causes friction.
Yes—those matter.
But when problems become your only focus, you reduce innovation to maintenance.
You fix.
You patch.
You wait for the next issue.
That’s not forward motion.
That’s upkeep.
The Problem Mindset
When problems dominate attention, a predictable pattern emerges:
You scan for what’s broken instead of what’s possible
You tie value to how many fires you put out
You stay reactive instead of creative
You burn energy without compounding results
The list of problems never ends.
That’s why the grind feels endless.
The Reframe
A problem is not the destination.
It’s raw material.
A problem is opportunity wearing work clothes.
When you see an #ouch, you don’t just see pain.
You see a door.
Problems lose their power when they’re put in context.
They stop defining your day.
They stop defining you.
Compounding Opportunity
The most valuable opportunities don’t live in a single window.
They show up in more than one.
Unexpected + incongruity.
Process need + perception change.
Pain + market shift.
When multiple windows point to the same opening, that’s a signal.
Lean in.
That’s how small observations turn into big moves.
From Tags to Windows
Your daily tags are signals:
#hmm — curiosity
#ouch — friction
#wow — momentum
The windows are the map.
Tag first.
Map later.
When you connect signals to windows, patterns emerge.
Patterns reveal opportunity.
The Shift
The Problem Mindset asks:
“What’s wrong?”
“How do I fix it?”
The Opportunity Mindset asks:
“What’s changing?”
“Where’s the opening?”
One keeps you busy.
The other pulls you forward.
The Place for Problems
Problems matter.
They’re just not the whole picture.
They belong in one window—
not at the center of your worldview.
When you look through all seven windows, you see more.
When you see more, you move differently.
And that’s how solopreneurs stop maintaining the present
and start creating the future.
Coming Next
How volition determines which opportunities you should pursue—and which you should ignore.