Identifying opportunities

How to evaluate the personal value

‘People should pursue what they’re passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else.’

Elon Musk

If you’re considering exploring an opportunity you need to determine if there is potential for personal value creation. Estimating the personal value involves using your gut, logic and intuition to sense if addressing the opportunity does have the potential for this value. If exploring the opportunity does not motivate you to get out of bed in the morning, then it is probably not aligning with your personal values and passion.

Self-reflection is key here and you should think about why you actually care about something and if your passion is enough to motivate you day after day. Another thing to consider is if exploring an opportunity will cause harm to you in any way. This could be physical or emotional harm. For example, overworking or extra stress related to developing an innovation could mean you don’t have time to exercise or live a balanced life which could impact your mental health and wellbeing.

Example

Let's think about Eli. He was frustrated when he realised how many accessories he needed to run basic devices. He zoomed out from addressing existing technology accessories, zoomed into looking at improving technology access, then moved sideways and aligned his passion with the opportunity to address technology accessibility for peoples with disabilities. While not obvious, throughout this process, Eli was evaluating his position at a personal level. He realised that addressing the opportunity surrounding existing technology accessories or improving technology access was not something he cared about. The opportunity didn’t excite him and he didn’t see it as something he wanted to invest his time in.

The value of reframing his personal position will allow him to maintain his drive to take the next step to explore the innovative opportunity. Alongside caring about it, he’ll be full of optimism, excitement and eager to know more. This is what we want you to feel once you have evaluated your personal position from an opportunity you have identified. Reframing an opportunity may result in an opportunity that has veered quite far from the original opportunity, but that isn’t a bad thing as long as each subsequent opportunity gets one step closer to creating value for you.

When evaluating the personal value potential of exploring an opportunity you should also evaluate the skills and contacts you may develop. To do this you should think about the skills and contacts you actually want to improve or develop and those that will contribute to your personal and career development. For example, if you want to be in the energy industry you might focus on developing engineering and technical skills that will help you succeed in that area. Following this, you can reflect on the opportunities you’re considering addressing and identify the relevant skills. Ideally, there are at least some skills that overlap and are both relevant to the opportunity and the skills you want to develop.

Focus on skills

Ask yourself ‘how well do the skills required to explore your opportunity match the skills you personally want to improve or further develop? If you do this, then you’ll be equipped to make a judgement about whether or not this is a valuable skill development opportunity.

It is definitely worth doing this evaluation across multiple opportunities that might be valuable or you might be passionate about so that you can compare the potential value. Keep in mind there are some skills that will be useful in all startups and all career paths - like verbal and written communication skills, so no matter what opportunity you’re addressing you’ll be developing crucial skills that will be applicable no matter where you end up.

Insights into entrepreneurship

Watch a video compiled by Blockshelf, to learn how entrepreneurship brings personal value.

50 Entrepreneurs share priceless advice (18:39).

Please note: this video was not developed by, and is not the property of the ATN and is hosted on an external website.

Startup your career

What skills do you think will set you up for the future of work? Read and reflect on the top five skills discussed in this post on the UTS Careers Blog.

How to Make a Startup Experience Work to Your Advantage