How do you decide on what to build?

Is it building something that fixes a problem in your life?

What makes you the right person to build it?

Do you have unique context?

Celine Halioua's advice is the following.

First, have obsessive dedication to a future world

That means building a company not because you can, but because you can't possible not

You have to tolerate years of discomfort and pain, like chewing glass, to push forward your vision of the future.

The escalating challenges of building a startup will out-durate your willpower.

This irrational dedication is key to maintaining supremely high growth rate necessary for a founder.

Pushing to the 99th percentile requires actively rejecting comfort.

"If any world where your vision unrealized is tolerable to you, you will struggle to maintain the energy to fuel this growth rate"

Second, ask yourself: What are you uniquely adept to build?

There are many interesting companies where you can have the necessary skill sets, but you may not be uniquely adept to build it.

For a young founder, this unique competency is the intersection of various fields or opportunities, or a market that is new or non-obvious.

You may now be wondering: How to build this unique insight?

It takes years, of following your curiosity, and it is non-linear

They are born from deep insight in an area (or intersection of areas) that few others have context for.

This takes time, and it can be painful, you have to be patient as you build out this context, before going out and building something.

This step is important because you can discover low hanging fruit that are non-obvious to others.

If they require minimal context building or are commonly held context, you'll be fighting over the last few fruit.

The non-obvious ones are just as sweet or sweeter, but less discovered by others.