What's your motivation?
I took quite a bit of time off since my wedding/honeymoon. It's taken me quite some time to get myself going again since coming back burnt to a crisp from Cancun, Mexico 
. By the way, for vacations - "all-inclusive" is the way to go. It's really the first time I really felt like I was on vacation. There's really a relaxing feeling about getting out of bed, leaving your wallet in your room, going to breakfast, eating, and getting up and leaving. No calculating 15-20% tip, no worrying about the bill, NOTHING! Love it. It was some much needed rest and relaxation after an intense period before the wedding.
Sorry for the aside, had to get my plug in there for "all-inclusive resorts". I was at a recent dinner event for aspiring young entrepreneurs. An older gentleman got up to speak and he said something that really struck me. He was talking about one of his friends that had started many companies. He said something that has stuck with me. He said, "My friend told me that the companies that he started for the sole purpose of making money, he lost his shirt on. The companies that he started to help others, he got rich on."
For some reason, that statement fascinated me to no end. But it makes a lot of sense and actually ties in well with Simon Sinek's concept of inspiration - "People don't buy your product because of what you do. They buy your product because why you do it." Going a step further, Simon makes the argument that there are often very little differences between product features - so ultimately, it comes down to the "why" a company does something - and "helping" people or in a marketing sense "fulfilling a need" is a heck of a reason to do something.
That comes to my second point, using the motivation of helping people or fulfilling a need keeps a company "consumer-driven" or "consumer-focused". In other words, product development and innovation are driven by making lives better. This means your product development dollars are spent better and smarter. You'd be surprised by how many company aimlessly spend research and development dollars aimlessly to develop "cool" technology does not solve a problem.
Bottom line - start with the problem, then develop the solution. And focus on a solution that truly changes peoples lives for the better. And finally, don't just start a business to make money. That's a side effect of starting a business. The reason for starting a business has to be bigger than money. If you are solving a problem that no one else is solving and you are solving it well, money will come (well except in an economy after a Bush administration).
. By the way, for vacations - "all-inclusive" is the way to go. It's really the first time I really felt like I was on vacation. There's really a relaxing feeling about getting out of bed, leaving your wallet in your room, going to breakfast, eating, and getting up and leaving. No calculating 15-20% tip, no worrying about the bill, NOTHING! Love it. It was some much needed rest and relaxation after an intense period before the wedding. Sorry for the aside, had to get my plug in there for "all-inclusive resorts". I was at a recent dinner event for aspiring young entrepreneurs. An older gentleman got up to speak and he said something that really struck me. He was talking about one of his friends that had started many companies. He said something that has stuck with me. He said, "My friend told me that the companies that he started for the sole purpose of making money, he lost his shirt on. The companies that he started to help others, he got rich on."
For some reason, that statement fascinated me to no end. But it makes a lot of sense and actually ties in well with Simon Sinek's concept of inspiration - "People don't buy your product because of what you do. They buy your product because why you do it." Going a step further, Simon makes the argument that there are often very little differences between product features - so ultimately, it comes down to the "why" a company does something - and "helping" people or in a marketing sense "fulfilling a need" is a heck of a reason to do something.
That comes to my second point, using the motivation of helping people or fulfilling a need keeps a company "consumer-driven" or "consumer-focused". In other words, product development and innovation are driven by making lives better. This means your product development dollars are spent better and smarter. You'd be surprised by how many company aimlessly spend research and development dollars aimlessly to develop "cool" technology does not solve a problem.
Bottom line - start with the problem, then develop the solution. And focus on a solution that truly changes peoples lives for the better. And finally, don't just start a business to make money. That's a side effect of starting a business. The reason for starting a business has to be bigger than money. If you are solving a problem that no one else is solving and you are solving it well, money will come (well except in an economy after a Bush administration).
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