What entrepreneurs consistently misunderstand about success
People like to believe that business success comes from superior talent, better products, or exceptional intelligence. Those things matter, but they are rarely the deciding factor.
The uncomfortable reality is that markets reward relevance, not effort.
A great product launched in the wrong place, at the wrong time, for the wrong audience will almost always lose to an average product that happens to meet existing demand.
This is why so many talented people struggle while less talented competitors thrive. The difference is often not skill. It is context.
The Carpenter and the Chair
Imagine a carpenter building a chair.
The wood is the same. The tools are the same. The craftsmanship is the same.
In one town, the chair sells for 20,000 shillings. In another, buyers refuse to pay more than 5,000.
Nothing about the chair changed.
The market changed.
The carpenter did not become more skilled in one location and less skilled in another. The value of the work simply depended on the number of people who wanted it, their purchasing power, and the alternatives available to them.
This principle extends far beyond furniture.
A programmer in a region where businesses barely use software may struggle to find clients. Move that same programmer into a market where companies actively invest in technology, and their income can multiply without them learning a single new skill.
The skill was valuable all along. The market simply failed to recognize it.
Why Timing Matters More Than Most People Think
Markets are not static.
A product that nobody wants today may become essential tomorrow.
Selling umbrellas during a drought is difficult. Selling them when the first storm clouds appear requires almost no persuasion.
Timing often determines whether something is seen as visionary or unnecessary.
An internet café launched in the late 1990s was a promising business. Launching the same business today would be a mistake in many places—not because the service became worse, but because the world changed.
Technology, demographics, consumer behavior, and economic conditions constantly reshape demand. Skills and businesses that appear outdated can become valuable again when circumstances shift.
What matters is not just what you offer.
What matters is whether the market currently wants it.
The Question Entrepreneurs Should Be Asking
Many entrepreneurs spend years perfecting products while spending very little time understanding demand.
They ask:
"How can I build something better?"
A more important question is:
"Who needs this, where are they, and why would they buy it now?"
Businesses rarely fail because their founders worked too little.
They often fail because they built for a market that did not exist, was too small, or was not ready.
The market determines whether effort is rewarded.
The Real Source of Value
Value is not created in isolation.
A skill has no fixed worth. Its worth is determined by the number of people willing to pay for it.
This explains why identical skills can generate dramatically different incomes across industries, cities, and countries. It explains why some businesses grow rapidly despite having ordinary products, while others disappear despite offering something objectively better.
Success is not simply a function of competence.
It is the result of competence meeting demand at the right place and the right time.
That is why there are very few bad skills.
There are only skills that have not yet found the market that needs them.
