Business Idea or Market Validation - What Comes First?

There is a lot of discussion and opinion surrounding whether you should start with a business idea - work on that and then bring it to market - versus validate proof of concept first then refine it to match what the market wants.

Recent business wisdom leans towards validating proof of concept first while discourages the former.

Here is my opinion - it depends.

I believe all visionaries see a future in which they want to provide a product or service to the market that it doesn't even know it wants itself (e.g. the market didn't want cars, they wanted faster/more horses). This is hard to validate proof of concept because the market lives in the present and cannot envision the future in which the visionary lives.

That said, for those who want to provide value for an existing market in a better or more efficient way (e.g. provide faster/more horses), you can validate proof of concept easily and is a fine approach too.

My point is - it depends on what you are aiming at.

Knowing what you are aiming at first is the question you should answer, then decide if you want to push forward with your idea or validate product market fit. I have no bias towards one or the other, they are just different approaches.

Just know, a rational man bends himself to the world while the irrational man bends the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the irrational man.

P.S. Why does it have to be one or the other? Why not both? (See post 'The Problem with Delayed Gratification')