Product Alchemy: Building a product is the best self-improvement

What's the purpose of self-improvement?

To become a better problem solver. Problems are the things that cause our suffering. The only reason you desire to "improve" is to eliminate your suffering and the suffering of the people you care about.

So, if becoming a more competent problem solver is the goal of self-improvement, why don't you tackle your problems right away, and improve in the process?

This question is worth examining a bit.

Because if you can start a project that aims to solve all of the painful problems that haunt you and your loved ones, you could then devote your life to building that project.

I call this concept "Product Alchemy". Alchemy because ancient & medieval alchemists from China, India, Arabia, and Europe were focused on crafting the "Philosophers Stone". This stone, in theory, enabled its user to turn ordinary metals into gold, cure all diseases, provide divine bliss, and bring immortality. The solution to all problems essentially. The ultimate product.

But to create a product that solves all problems, who would you have to become? How much would you need to improve?

This question is probably impossible to answer since creating such a product is probably impossible to achieve. However, it should be the navigation for every engineer, entrepreneur, and perhaps also artist: to create a piece of work that solves all problems for the user, customer, or consumer.

Implementing this is the hard part.

And it's hard because it means work. Product Alchemy starts by identifying the biggest problem you currently face in your life and turning it into a project.

Literally, do this right after you finish reading this letter. Think a bit, and write down the most painful problem you currently face. That one problem that causes the most suffering in your life.

Find a place to host that problem (as weird as this sounds). This can be a note on your phone or on a piece of paper. It really doesn't matter too much in the beginning. The important thing is that you perceive it as a project that you can work on.

So now that you have your problem clearly articulated in a specific place, research solutions, and create a product that either directly solves the problem, or teaches how to solve the problem. It could become a service, software, a book, a course, or any other form of product.

I was for example addicted to weed. So what I did was create a course in my skool community about how to overcome weed addiction. I didn't publish it, only had it as a draft. But what I did was write down my approach on how to overcome the addiction, and search for solutions online to add to the course.

Fast forward: I don't even crave weed anymore. I've been free from the addiction for more than a year now. AND, I have a course on how to overcome weed addiction. Obviously, I revised it heavily after I actually achieved the goal. So now it's a course that's built on real experience and can genuinely help someone with weed addiction.

Which is the next cool effect of practicing product alchemy. You get to sell the product after having created it, and can combine selfishness with selflessness in that process. You for example, if you are someone who's addicted to weed, can go to my skool community, purchase a membership, and get your problem solved, while I get paid. Win-Win.

This approach not only makes business meaningful but your life as such.

There's no end to practicing product alchemy. It's the ultimate way to self-educate in a world where all information is available on the internet, for free. The missing thing is action.

If you're intrigued by this idea consider starting your own skool community, and start creating courses that "host" your problems. Keep them as drafts, and start finding solutions to the problems. If a problem branches out, and simple education wouldn't be sufficient to solve it anymore you can search for ways to build more complex solutions.

The fundamental purpose of Product Alchemy is to get you to take immediate and intense action on solving your problems. This is the most meaningful and positive thing you can do.

If you're addicted to weed and porn, aren't exercising your body regularly, aren't self-educating through the immense library that is the internet, and aren't building something useful to society, then you have no business in discussing global politics or saving the polar bears. You'll do more harm than good.

Besides, if you solve a personal problem a new one emerges. The more problems you solve the more your actions affect other people positively.

For example: If you haven't been able to overcome your addictions you will probably not be able to build a profitable business. Highly unlikely. But if you can manage to overcome them, you'll suddenly have the time, energy, and focus to build a business. A business that then not only makes you money (selfish problem being solved) but also improves the lives of others because someone has to give you money in the first place.

Solving your personal problems in the fashion I explained before becomes a game by that. A game that improves your life and the life of every other human in relation to how intense you play (how complex problems you solve).

So start playing.

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