How much of your time is spent obsessing over your customers' problems? Or how much is spent on the stuff you want to build?

**The conference room story:** A business owner spent 45 minutes showing Scott everything he'd built. Impressive. Then Scott asked: "What does your customer need next?" Pause. "I don't know."

**The problem:** We build things that meet our goals. But the thing that makes a business operate is the customer opening their wallet.

**Scott's quick fix:** When things feel stuck, ask: "How can I serve my customer better?" It flips the focus outward.

**The Doc story:** Scott was selling rural land. A buyer named Doc asked, "How close is the nearest Walmart?" Scott assumed close was good. Doc said: "Please tell me it's more than 20 minutes away." He was an Afghanistan veteran. The city was too loud. He wanted to take his son somewhere quiet—to be one with nature. He bought the property on the spot.

30 months later, Doc called. "I'm ready to be back in the city. The property served its purpose." He gave it back.

**The lesson:** If Scott had assumed remoteness was bad, he would have carried that wrong inference into every future sales call. By staying open and asking why, he discovered that what he thought was a weakness was actually the feature.

**The principle:** We cannot serve everybody. Find the people who want the solution you can offer. Obsess over their problems, not your goals.

**The result:** The guy in the conference room went back, talked to customers, found out what they needed next, and built that. His business took off.

Got a business question? Ask Scott here: [scotttodd.net/ask](https://www.scotttodd.net/ask)