Concept
The convergence
The convergence is Chris Guillebeau's name for the overlap between something you love doing or are good at (ideally both) and something other people want and will pay for. Passion nobody pays for is a hobby; a market you hate serving is a job; a business sits where the two meet.
Guillebeau found that the businesses in his study were built neither on passion alone nor on market analysis alone, but on this overlap. It helps to split his first circle in two and ask three questions: what can you do well, what do you enjoy, and what will people pay for? The third is the one first-time owners skip, because what they can do and what they enjoy are visible to them and the paying version of the skill has to be found. It is usually narrower and stranger than the skill: people do not pay for translation, they pay for a contract back by Monday; they do not pay for bread, they pay for the Saturday loaf their family expects. The work of the convergence is to name the outcome the customer gets and price that, and to be honest in the first circle about what you can do well now rather than what you plan to learn.
A real-life example
A ceramicist in Kütahya loves throwing bowls and is good at it, but bowls sell slowly at weekend markets. When she asks the cafés that already buy from her what they would pay for, the answer is matching cups with the café's name on them, replaced quickly when they break. She now sells that, by the dozen, on a standing order.
How to use it
- 1Draw the three circles and be honest in each; the overlap is smaller than the skill.
- 2Name the outcome the customer gets, not the service you provide.
- 3Start on existing skill; learn after the first customer.