Why You Should Make a What-I-Hate List from Your 9–6 Today
Because your future start-up comes from there
Each time I think my boss is acting like a dumb ass, I write it down.
I write it the way it is, like Stupid Boss.
The next time I catch him being stupid again, I write it down without sugar-coating.
It goes like this. Stupid Boss.
I will continue this exercise day after day, week after week. I am not using this as self-improvement, the way many people do. Oh, I do not want to make the same mistake he did, or so they say.
I fully respect people’s decisions.
For me, I want to grow my What-I-Hate list. This list is a personal journal, and I reference it for clarity. It tells me everything I needed to understand about myself.
That insight alone allows me to figure out my ideal start-up based on what I should not do. In a journey requiring 100 steps, this process fills up the first 50.
It is not too shabby for a start.
This is how it works.
It Identifies Problems You Never Knew Bothered You
All problems become smaller when you confront them instead of dodging them.
Yeah, but that works if we know what problems actually bother us enough to want to do something about it.
This is a critical distinction between all possible problems we encounter this lifetime, versus the subset we have to act to kill them off.
Mum’s nagging is a problem. But if we learned to live with it, then it is just background noise.
Real problems annoy, frustrate, disturb us to a point where we cannot stop thinking about solving them once and for all, for the good of Mankind. And maybe, earn some dollars and cents out of it.
The initialization of your future start-up is in play.
But first, let us go through the What-I-Hate list.
Curate the Problems You Want to Solve from the What-I-Hate List
First, you grow the list. Next, you curate items from the list.
Go deep in the line items, circle repeat ones, and keep asking why it bothers you. I will circle back to my introduction on Stupid Boss.
2 words make a villain:
- He is a Stupid Boss because he prioritizes administrative reports over the speed of customer turnover.
- He is a Stupid Boss because he doesn’t understand what the customer wants.
- He is a Stupid Boss because he doesn’t believe in investing time and money into digital marketing and content creation.
- He is a Stupid Boss because.
- He is a Stupid Boss because.
Focus on one thing and keep drilling the list. You have to because gems illuminating your future are hidden from plain sight in this list of grudges and laments.
When you are done with your list, take a deep look at what you have written. Let us take this sentence.
He is a Stupid Boss because he doesn’t believe in investing time and money into digital marketing and content creation.
Bootstrap all personal elements away as we examine this statement. What does it say about me?
These are my thoughts (the good):
- Going digital means achieving massive reach at faster speeds.
- Faster speed meant we can do more within the same timeframe, unlike traditional marketing domains like free-to-air advertisements or out-of-door media.
- Well-crafted content drives impressions, drives sales conversion.
These are my thoughts (the bad but not personal):
- He is stupid because he cannot foresee the upcoming trend.
- I expect my boss to be ahead of the innovation adoption curve.
I derived 5 gems from my What-I-Hate list, and they influenced me to partake in start-up ventures and projects that align with my thinking.
It provides clarity in what I do.
I choose to work with business partners who consistently stay ahead of the innovation curve. Live-streaming? Check. Bitclout? Check. Ethereum-based website business? Check.
It also points me to the skillsets I have to acquire to get better.
Great content requires good video-taking, clear articulation of ideas within 2 minutes, short and sharp copywriting, understanding what makes each digital platform tick.
Impressions drive sales. Before that, the conversion mechanism must be up in place. Great stuff, now where to learn that?
It tells me the personality types I cannot work with. This insight pays dividends. Always work with people allowing you can sleep well at night.
It points to a whole new level of focus, exploration, and possible future. My start-up will be digital, innovation-driven, with minimal bureaucracy.
And it starts from the What-I-Hate list.
Summary
I envy everyone who knows what they want to do in life.
I took the long road because I have to figure it out. Even figuring it out requires figuring out. The way I do that is to examine what I don’t appreciate.
I create a What-I-Hate list, drill it real deep, understand what makes me boil, reverse-engineer it, and ask if that makes me tick.
That is my trick.
Give it a try. It might work for you if you are trying to figure your future start-up.
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure. Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.