17/07/2026
The Market Teaches You More Than Any Mentor or Business Book Will Ever Teach You
If you are an entrepreneur don't stop reading till you get to the end.... I know it's lengthy but it will be worth your time
One of the biggest mistakes Business Owners make is believing they already know what the market wants.
We spend so much time thinking about our products, brainstorming ideas, refining offers, and convincing ourselves that because we understand our business, we automatically understand our customers.
Unfortunately, that isn't how business works.
There is a level of information that nobody can teach you, and no amount of books, courses, or mentorship can replace it.
That information only comes from interacting with the market.
The moment your product, service, or offer gets in front of real people, something begins to happen.
People start asking questions you never thought they would ask.
They raise objections you never considered, they point out problems you didn't know existed, and sometimes they even reveal opportunities you never imagined.
And these lessons are unique to your business because they are coming directly from the people you are trying to serve.
The challenge is that many entrepreneurs never get to that point because they spend too much time making assumptions.
They assume they know why customers will buy, what customers care about, how much customers are willing to pay, and what message will convince people to take action.
But the reality is that assumptions don't build successful businesses.
Facts do, and the market is the only place you can consistently get those facts.
I remember teaching one of my students how to run ads for his business. Before then, we had several conversations where I kept telling him that his business lacked structure.
Every time I mentioned it, he argued with me because, from his perspective, everything looked fine.
Since he wasn't interacting with enough potential customers, he couldn't see the gaps I was talking about. Because he believed he had taught about everything
So we launched his ads, and within a short period, he reached out to me that he needed to pause the ads to work on some things.
Apparently when Potential customers began reaching out, they asked questions he wasn't prepared for. Some wanted information that wasn't available. Others were interested but didn't know what the next step was because there was no clear process.
He had just assumed that when people with interest start coming in, he will be able to handle them without proper planning.
Interestingly, I didn't convince him anymore that his business lacked structure. The market did that in a few days.
Funnily, he is not alone in this, I see a lot of business owners who always assume they know so much about their market or customers even without interacting with them and many are humbled by the market.
This is one lesson I wish more entrepreneurs understood. Sometimes, the greatest business consultant you'll ever have is the market itself.
The market has a way of exposing weaknesses that your familiarity with your business keeps hiding from you. It shows you where your communication is weak, where your systems are incomplete, where your offer needs improvement, and where customers are getting confused.
These are lessons you cannot manufacture from your office or your notebook.
You only discover them by putting your offer in front of people.
This is one of the reasons I encourage business owners to learn advertising. Most people think advertising is simply a tool for generating sales, but I believe that's a very limited way of looking at it. Advertising is one of the fastest and cheapest ways to interact with your market and gather valuable information before making major business decisions.
Imagine spending a few thousand naira to put an idea in front of hundreds or even thousands of your ideal customers.
This helps you save a lot
Because Before investing heavily in production, renting a shop, employing staff, or buying inventory, you already understand whether people actually want what you're planning to sell.
You hear the exact words they use to describe their problems. You discover the objections they have, what excites them, what confuses them, and what they are actually willing to pay for.
This kind of information is priceless because it helps you build a business around reality instead of assumptions.
In fact, many times the market will tell you to improve your product before you even launch it.
Sometimes it will reveal that your offer isn't the problem; your messaging is.
Other times, you'll discover that people love your solution but don't understand it.
There are even situations where the market points you in a completely different direction, leading you to create or get a different and better product than the one you originally planned.
This is why I always say that advertising is more than a customer acquisition tool.
It is a market intelligence tool. It allows you to shorten the distance between your ideas and reality.
Instead of spending months or years guessing what customers want, you can begin gathering real feedback almost immediately.
The businesses that grow the fastest are not necessarily those with the best ideas; they are the ones that learn the fastest, and the fastest learners are those who consistently interact with their market.
Sometimes I even see people who intend to start selling a new product and they want to automate without interacting with the market. Such automation will just purely be based on assumptions and that is why a lot of entrepreneur struggle with sales...
So before you become too attached to your assumptions, let the market speak.
Test your ideas. Put your offers in front of people. Listen to their questions, pay attention to their objections, and study their behaviour.
That's why Whenever my students tell me about an offer or an angle they want to take on in sales, I always recommend testing the market.
Because The market will teach you things that no classroom ever can, and those lessons may very well become the foundation upon which you build a truly successful business.
I hope this helps
~King Ighosotu Ntekume
