How the entrepreneur solves the problem

A few months ago, a friend who had just started a company said to me, "I just can't figure out why a poor kid or a slum-free child doesn't want to start a business to get out of poverty." "His people are nice, and I know what he wants to say," he says. But, with all due respect, there is one thing in his conversation that is true: he really can't figure it out.

I have observed 2013 years of innovation in science and technology. What's the name of an app that lets you rent a private car from San Francisco airport to the Moscone Center Hotel, just calling a taxi is so troublesome? or invite someone to your home to help you with your dry-cleaning, just drop by the cleaners on your way home, like a grown-up, Is it that difficult? I'm pretty sure there's so much in this world that we can't understand.

We call ourselves "innovators," but most people are just iterators (iterator, program language); we say our mission is to solve problems, but only to the troubles that exist in the "First World".

What are we doing this for? Because we want to make a fortune, that's no doubt, that's true. But as the movie "Grand National" says: "There is no secret to getting rich, so long as you think about it, you can make a lot of money." "Then go and be an investment banker." If you really want to make it easy to get rich in the tech industry, make a pornographic website, I really, low cost and high yield, pornography is the only choice, if money is your only belief.

But technicians have worked to solve "big problems", not just the first world problem, but the whole world's problems-sending humans to the moon, ending poverty, and curbing disease. Do these things without IPO Huang, and can not access the headlines of science and technology news sites, not to get others flattery.

They are paying because technology is a matter of improving human living conditions.

And there's still a lot of room for improvement.

Long, long ago, I wrote a column for Las Vegas CityLife, and my editor called me one day and asked if I wanted to know what was hidden in the sewer. My ability to protect myself is a fragile, but I still cluth the flashlight to the dark.

I see at the bottom of this neon-lit and glamorous city that hundreds of people live in it. Some of them are addicted to drugs, or gambling addiction, or alcohol addiction. A lot of people are crazy, it's hard to say whether it is because of insanity brought them here, in short, the number of people here.

But they survived. They are from the construction site or Home Depot (press: Home Depot, the United States and the company's garbage bins steal building materials, by virtue of their own strength to build their own shelters, even if only a small house, they use briquettes slag as a shelf, they put their own bedstead to avoid being washed away by the sudden rain. They survived, and even if the situation looked horrible and miserable, they created a space for themselves, though that seemed like hell.

This is my definition of innovation.

Another recent example is Susan Qguya, an entrepreneur I met in SXSW, who was the founder of Kenyanailobi's new venture Mfarm. Through Mfarm, Kenyan farmers are immediately aware of the value of their agricultural products in the marketplace. Although 90% of Kenyans have mobile phones, most of them are not smartphones, so mfarm is sending notices to farmers by text messages.

Mfarm is neither hot nor glamorous, and Silicon Valley VCs must be interested in it. But Mfarm is changing Kenya's agricultural economy, a genuine innovation that is yozakku destructive (disruptive).

So why don't I do it? Why don't you do it? Why don't we do it?

The answer to this question is that my friends wonder why slum children do not venture out. If you are reading this article, it is likely that you were born in an environment full of resources and opportunities, a world where 95% of the Earth's people are not blessed to enjoy. You have access to information and power of the pipeline, so that people chin envy unceasingly, but the status, resources and opportunities but may make us blind. Our vision is isolated in the center and the hacker space, not seeing the faces of others and seeing the real problem.

Don't go back home on your way to work tonight, don't return to the safety Zone East Fremont, which is built for the tech people. Change course, go to Maryland Parkway around, sunflower apartments, buy a beer, sit on the curb, watch the neighborhood, watch the locals, watch how they interact, watch their living conditions, talk to them.

Then think about how you can use your witty head, rich resources, powerful power, to improve their lives. I'm not asking you to open a relief kitchen or to be a successor to Mother Teresa, but to spend one day a week or even one months a day, you can try to solve these people's problems, real problems.

Here are a few ideas: the development of a bus stop to notify the app, so that people do not have to sit alone at the end of the night after the bus stops. A community site that helps people access to cheap Android phones. Set up class classes so that people who don't have the money to do community college also have the opportunity to learn technology. Find ways to introduce raspberry Pis or small pens to schools that can't afford textbooks.

These are not unprofitable charities, and they will be grateful if the price of your product is not in jeopardy. Every time you get angry about Facebook's valuations, think of the world's third-largest company that earns more than Austria's GDP (the authors should refer to Wal-Mart), where the target client is blue-collar, and the money they earn to buy more than 10 Facebook is no problem. Susan Oguya told me that the bottom of the pyramid is very broad.

Can we use our minds, our technology, our resources, to create a better world for people who lack opportunities? Our small effort may bring about unparalleled change.

We'll be better, we'll be more amazing, we'll be heroes.