Inspiration comes from challenges. For example, every great story starts with a challenge: a baffling mystery, a menacing Goliath, a childhood spent in a cupboard under the stairs.
Companies, too, are born of challenges — often personal ones. The same goes for inventions, art projects, and social movements. In every area of life, there’s a connection between challenges and creativity.
This is definitely true for me personally. Both of my books, Hooked and Indistractable, were inspired by challenges that kept coming up in my own life.
When I sought a guide on how to use technology to build healthy habits in people’s lives, I couldn’t find one — so, I researched and wrote Hooked to address that challenge. Similarly, a few years later, I found myself getting distracted from my priorities in life, but most of the books out there did nothing but blame technology. I decided to look deeper into the root of the problem, and Indistractable ended up being the book I wished I’d found. Eventually, the buzz of unsolved problems became a din, and that was my motivation to act.
I’ve also seen how this principle works from a front-row seat as an angel investor. It’s a privilege to support people who tackle challenges by building world-changing companies like Eventbrite, Kahoot, Canva, and many others. Each of the people building…
