Not all needs have a market (yet).

A market is a category. A market is a place with competition. In a market, people have habits and budgets and social pressure to engage. There are buyers and sellers.

In many cultures, there’s a market for all the items that go with a quinceanera, a birthday party for a 15-year-old girl. While girls in other cultures might want or need the sort of attention that comes with this extravaganza, there’s no existing market for it.

It’s tempting to be a market pioneer, to be the one who shows up with the first charge card, the first personal training firm or the first home computer. But it’s a challenging road.

It can be thrilling work, but because creators focus on needs not markets, they often fail to account for just how difficult it is to activate those needs and turn them into a thriving market.

If you’re in market-creation mode, it helps to call it that and be prepared for how difficult it might be.