Every great entrepreneur shares one uncommon trait: they see the world as it is, not as they feel it should be. The ability to predict the future — to anticipate needs, trends, and human behavior — doesn’t come from genius alone. It comes from killing your solipsism: the belief that your own mind, your own view, and your own experiences define reality.The moment you stop thinking the world revolves around you, you start seeing it clearly.
What Solipsism Looks Like in Business
Solipsism isn’t always arrogance; sometimes it’s subtle. It’s assuming that everyone thinks like you do — that they’ll want your product because you think it’s useful, or that they’ll spend money because you would.It’s the founder who builds an app for problems no one else has.It’s the marketer who assumes everyone shares their values.It’s the investor who only trusts what “feels right” instead of what the data shows.In business, solipsism blinds you to the truth: your perspective isn’t the market.
The Entrepreneur as Observer
The most successful entrepreneurs are not dreamers detached from reality — they are hyper-observers of human nature. They study what people actually do, not what they say they want.Jeff Bezos didn’t build Amazon because he loved books — he saw that people valued convenience and reliability more than browsing a bookstore.Elon Musk didn’t start Tesla because he was obsessed with cars — he read the trajectory of energy, regulation, and public sentiment.They didn’t project their own desires onto the world. They listened, watched, and adapted to what was real.
Why Solipsism Kills Prediction
To predict the future, you need accurate models of reality — and those models come from empathy, observation, and data, not ego.If you live in your own head, every signal becomes distorted. You’ll miss subtle shifts in culture, technology, and values because they don’t fit your personal worldview. You’ll take offense where you should take notes. You’ll react emotionally when you should adapt logically.When you kill solipsism, you stop fighting reality and start learning from it.
How to Kill Solipsism
1. Listen more than you speak.Every conversation is a data point. The less you impose your worldview, the more the world tells you what it actually wants.
2. Seek disconfirming evidence.Find people who disagree with you and take them seriously. The truth often hides in their objections.
3. Separate “I like it” from “it works.”The market doesn’t care about your taste; it cares about value and efficiency.
4. Study behavior, not opinions.Surveys lie. Sales don’t. Actions are the real voice of the market.
The Freedom of Clarity
Killing solipsism doesn’t make you cold — it makes you clear.It frees you from emotional bias, from tribal thinking, from the illusion that your perspective is special.Once you stop projecting, you start predicting. You begin to notice patterns others miss — because you’re finally seeing the world as it is, not as you wish it were.
Entrepreneurship isn’t about imposing your will on the world — it’s about aligning with reality faster than others can.To do that, you must let go of the idea that your thoughts define truth.You must silence the voice that says “I already know.”Kill your solipsism, and you gain the only real superpower in business: the ability to see what’s coming next.
