The path appears as we walk
A mountain is climbed one step at a time
I’m a solo startup founder, following a corporate career. Under the umbrella of my little company, Incygames Ltd, I’m running a series of product development experiments. Daily View aims to help people understand what is happening today while Role CV explores a different approach to matching people with jobs. I’m also building websites and apps, publishing this weekly blog and sharing a daily update on LinkedIn.
I do not know which, if any, will succeed. However, I’m learning to trust the creative process: make something, share it, observe what happens and use the response to decide what to do next.
Perhaps purpose is not something we uncover before beginning, but something we build by beginning.
Clarity follows action
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. - Aristotle
Our instinct is to wait for certainty before acting. Yet, meaningful work often reveals itself gradually. We learn by doing and discover opportunities by interacting with reality rather than theorising.
I see this with Daily View. Building it exposed questions that were invisible while it existed only in my head. How much information is helpful rather than confusing? Is the main customer the person viewing the screen or the family member updating it? Will families and care homes value the same features?
A plan can provide direction, but only contact with the real world can test our assumptions. The product becomes clearer as people respond to it. The path becomes clearer as we walk.
Creation produces information
The value of an idea lies in the using of it. - Thomas Edison
Writing this blog reveals whether I understand an idea well enough to explain it. Publishing on LinkedIn requires me to consider what I’ve learned. Building a website forces me to clarify the problem, the customer and the action I want that person to take.
Creation also produces feedback. An idea in my head can remain perfect because nobody can disagree with it. Once I publish or build something, reality answers back. Sometimes the response is encouraging. Sometimes there is silence. Occasionally somebody asks a question that changes how I see the whole idea. Every response contains information.
Creating is not merely the final stage after thinking. It is one of the most useful ways of thinking.
Action expands capability
We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us. - John Culkin
Over time, I am developing skills, including writing, product development, marketing, design and software development. I’m not exceptional at any one of them and in several I am a novice. However, as Scott Adams observed, a distinctive combination of complementary skills can be more valuable than mastery of a single one.
AI tools amplify that combination. Claude Code does more than help me build websites and apps; it expands what I believe I can attempt. Each project develops new capabilities and makes the next one possible.
The market provides feedback
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. - Warren Buffett
People can ignore an idea, comment on it, use it, recommend it or pay for it. Each provides a different strength of signal.
Payment does not prove that a product has a worthwhile purpose, but it is evidence that somebody values the result. Useful products can fail through poor timing or execution while profitable products do not always improve the world. Nevertheless, repeated use, recommendations and payment tell us more than compliments alone.
A useful question is not simply, “How can I make money?” It is: “What problem can I solve well enough that people value the result?”
Purpose provides direction. Profit can help test whether that direction is creating something useful.
Build before you know
You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. - Steve Jobs
Startup history is full of products that emerged from abandoned ideas and unexpected customer behaviour. Slack grew from the remains of a gaming company. Instagram began as a broader location-sharing app. Their founders created something, observed what happened and adapted.
Careers and identities may develop in much the same way. We often imagine purpose as something hidden inside us, waiting to be discovered through enough reflection. But purpose may be less akin to treasure and more like a structure assembled over time. Projects, conversations, mistakes and unexpected opportunities become its raw materials.
Each experiment changes what we know and what we are capable of doing next.
I cannot know whether Daily View, Role CV or another idea will become a successful business. Nor can I know which blog post, website or conversation might create an unexpected opportunity.
But uncertainty does not mean that nothing is happening. I am producing things, developing skills, testing assumptions and trying to create value. Even experiments that fail commercially may become part of whatever succeeds later.
The dots may not yet form an obvious picture, but that does not make them meaningless.
Want More?
The Age of the Generalist talk by Dan Koe
Looking Foolish is the Price of Progress post by Phil Martin
Help Luck Find Us post by Phil Martin
I do not know where my solo journey will lead. For now, perhaps it is enough to keep moving, learning and allowing the path to reveal itself.
As David Livingstone put it: “I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward.”
Have fun.
Phil...
