Don’t confuse the Golden Triangle with The Value Triangle, which poses a question for potential customers about their priorities. The Golden Triangle is a question for you, about your priorities.
Imagine three intersecting circles. In each you list your answers to three questions, What:
- do I love doing?
- am I great at doing?
- is there a demand for?
The overlap between your answers is the Golden Triangle!
Enjoyment
One big advantage of being self-employed is you can choose what you do. Although you are free to choose, there will be constraints. The Golden Triangle helps you find out what is possible within those constraints.
If you are in paid work, you are likely to be doing some things you do not enjoy, possibly things your employer does not enjoy either!
There will always be things you have to do that you do not enjoy. Tax returns spring to mind, (If you do enjoy doing your tax returns, try phoning the UK tax office and you’ll soon change your mind!)
But if your main work is something you enjoy, then you will have the energy, the incentive to get on with it.
Capacity
However, being enthusiastic is not the same as being good at something. Sometimes you need to practice and enthusiasm may carry you some of the way. Writing is a good example of a skill you might enjoy but still requires practice to develop a readable style.
You need to be aware of how good you are at your main business activity because this will have implications for your confidence and even such basic things as your prices.
Market
Finally, your biggest constraint is finding your market and offering something it needs. It pays to develop your marketing alongside any product service or cause you develop.
Using the Golden Triangle
It is a good idea to do this exercise early on so you can design your offer to meet these three criteria or at least get as close to them as you can. One approach is to take each of your offers or potential offers and ask the three questions of it.
Do I enjoy doing this? Am I good at doing this? Do others appreciate this? If you have a lot of options, you may be able to rank them according to these criteria.
Finally, it is worth underlining why enjoyment is importance , particularly if you are self-employed. Taking pleasure in your work will help carry you through more difficult times. Obviously, sometimes you need to do things you don’t enjoy so much. But if overall you take little pleasure in what you do, perhaps you need to review what you are doing.
Also, remember you may find an activity you didn’t expect becomes enjoyable as you become proficient and learn more about it. So, don’t allow experience of current enjoyment cloud your ability to find something else equally enjoyable and possibly better business!
Do you enjoy your work? How did you find work you enjoy?