9. Any advice you would give to someone thinking about starting a business…
People ask me for business advice like I went to Harvard and discovered some secret formula written in ancient scrolls.
Here’s the truth: Everything you need to know about starting a business comes from a kids’ movie and a dead retail genius.
There’s this movie called Robots. Animated. Aimed at eight-year-olds. And buried in there is a refrain that gets repeated until it’s burned into your brain:
“See a need, fill a need.”
That’s it. That’s the whole game. Everything else is just noise.
I saw Americans who wanted to experience Morocco without being herded onto buses or thrown to the wolves of solo travel. That was the need. I filled it. End of story.
Not complicated. Not revolutionary. Just obvious—to anyone willing to look.
Sam Walton, the Walmart guy, said something that should be tattooed on every entrepreneur’s forehead (but backwards so you can read it in the mirror):
“Don’t do what we do. Don’t meet us head-on. Do what we don’t do.”
The big tour operators owned the bus market. Fine. I didn’t want it. They weren’t doing private, customized adventures. That space was wide open. So I walked right in and set up shop where they weren’t looking.
You don’t beat the competition by being better at their game. You win by playing a completely different game they didn’t know existed.
Before you waste time on anything else, answer these:
Can you do something better, cheaper, or faster than what exists?
Can you do something people want but can’t get?
If you answered yes to either one—congratulations. You have a business.
If you answered no to both—save yourself the trouble. Go get a job. There’s no shame in it.
People get paralyzed worrying about the wrong things:
“But what about corporate structures?” — That information is free and everywhere. Google it. It takes an afternoon.
“But what about banking?” — Banks will come to you when you have money moving. They’re in the business of wanting your business.
“But what about a business plan?” — Here’s what the military teaches you: No plan survives first contact with the enemy. You can spend six months crafting a perfect 50-page business plan. The market will shred it in the first week.
Business plans are fiction you write to make yourself feel prepared. The real plan emerges when you’re actually doing the thing, solving problems in real-time, adapting to what customers actually want instead of what you thought they’d want.
Strip away all the noise. Forget the consultants and the courses and the gurus selling you their “proven system.”
Ask yourself one question: Do you see a need?
Not “do you have an idea” or “do you have a passion” or “do you have a dream.”
Do you see a gap in the market where something should exist but doesn’t?
Because I’ll tell you what happened to me: I was standing at the edge of Gibraltar, staring at Africa, and I thought “why not?”
That question led me to Morocco. Morocco led me to M’hamid. M’hamid led me to a realization that people wanted what I’d stumbled into—and nobody was giving it to them.
I saw the need. I filled it.
Everything else—the licenses, the website, the marketing, the competition, the challenges—that all came after. And you deal with it as it comes, not before.
Starting a business isn’t about having all the answers.
It’s about seeing something that should exist and having the audacity to make it real.
It’s about standing at the edge of something and asking “why not?” instead of listing all the reasons why you can’t.
The paperwork will sort itself out. The money will find you if you’re actually solving a problem. The plan will evolve whether you write it down or not.
But that gap in the market? That need nobody’s filling? That won’t wait forever. Someone else will see it. Someone else will fill it.
The only question is: Will it be you? Or will you still be researching LLC structures while someone else is cashing the checks?
See a need. Fill a need. Everything else is just the adventure of figuring it out as you go. And trust me—that’s the best part anyway.
