Every January, the same question surfaces:
"What do you want?"
Better body. More money. Freedom. Purpose.
Everyone's chasing toward something.
But here's what I've learned after building a few seven-figure businesses:
You don't always start by knowing what you want.
Sometimes you start by knowing what you refuse to accept.
Let me tell you how I figured that out—and how a Japanese concept I discovered years later gave me the framework I'd been missing.
The Question I Couldn't Answer
Growing up, everyone asked the same thing:
"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Guidance counselors. Career day speakers. Well-meaning relatives at Thanksgiving.
They all wanted an answer. A label. A box.
Doctor. Lawyer. Engineer. Teacher.
I didn't have one.
Not because I lacked ambition. Because I refused to limit myself to one thing.
I loved karate. Boxing. Jiu jitsu. The idea of running my own business. Finance. The stock market. Politics, etc.
How was I supposed to pick one and abandon the rest?
The pressure was constant:
"You need to focus."
"Pick a path."
"You can't do everything."
But I didn't want to narrow my life down to a single track at 18 years old and ride it until I died.
So I didn't.
I just kept refusing to fit into their boxes.
At the time, it felt like indecision.
Looking back, it was the best decision I never made.
The Clarity of Refusal
As a teenager, I didn't know what I wanted my life to look like.
But I knew with absolute certainty what I didn't want:
I didn't want to work for someone else. I didn't want to trade 40 years of my life for 10 years of "freedom." I didn't want to ask permission to take a vacation. I didn't want to choose between paying rent and buying groceries. I didn't want my kids to grow up struggling the way I did.
That became my compass.
Not a vision board. Not a five-year plan. Just a list of things I refused to accept.
Every decision I made—every business I built, every opportunity I took or turned down—ran through that filter: Does this move me away from what I refuse? Or does it keep me there?
If it moved me away, I did it. If it kept me there, I walked.
That refusal got me my first success. The business I stumbled into at 16—working at a doctor's office, delivering pizzas on the side, running a gasoline scheme that would make your jaw drop (we'll save that story for another time)—worked because it moved me away from everything I didn't want. It gave me money. It gave me freedom. It proved the system was optional.
But here's what nobody tells you about early success:
Making money doesn't automatically give you direction.
The Years Nobody Talks About
I spent years after that first business wandering.
Building things that made money but didn't matter. Chasing opportunities because they were there, not because they aligned with anything. Making good money. Feeling completely empty.
I had escaped what I didn't want. But I had no idea what I was building toward.
That directionlessness nearly broke me.
I wasn't broke anymore. That was the goal, right?
Except it wasn't enough.
I'd solved the money problem. But I hadn't solved the meaning problem.
And that's when I realized: knowing what you refuse gets you out. But it doesn't tell you where to go once you're free.
For that, I needed something else.
Ikigai: The Framework I Wish I'd Known Earlier
Years into my entrepreneurial journey, I came across a Japanese concept called ikigai (生き甲斐).
It translates to "reason for being."
But it's more than purpose. It's the intersection of four things:
- What you love
- What you're good at
- What the world needs
- What you can be paid for
When all four overlap, you've found work you can sustain for decades.
This was the missing piece.
I had the money (circle four). I had developed skills (circle two). But I was building things I didn't care about (missing circle one) and often solving problems nobody actually had (missing circle three).
No wonder I felt empty.
When I finally mapped out my four circles, everything changed.
My Four Circles (And What They Revealed)
I grabbed a piece of paper and actually did this exercise. Here's what came out:
What I loved:
Challenging broken systems—education that traps people in debt, corporate structures that steal decades of life, the myth that you need permission to build wealth. I loved teaching people what I'd figured out the hard way. I loved building things from scratch. And I loved the philosophy from martial arts—discipline, persistence, constant improvement—applied to business.
What I was good at:
Building audiences organically without ads or gimmicks. Simplifying complex ideas so anyone could understand them. Creating content that actually resonated instead of just adding to the noise. Spotting patterns others missed—in markets, in behavior, in what actually works versus what sounds good.
What the world needed:
Accessible education. Not $5,000 courses that require you to go into debt to learn how to get out of debt. Real paths to freedom that didn't rely on get-rich-quick schemes or requiring credentials you didn't have. Proof that it was possible to escape without permission. Systems that actually worked for normal people, not just the already-wealthy.
What I could be paid for:
Digital products. Frameworks and systems. Guidance for people building their own escape. And critically—products priced under $150 so they were actually accessible to the people who needed them most.
The overlap:
Building digital products and systems that help people escape the 9-5 without going into debt or waiting for permission.
That became my business. The one I'm still building. The one that doesn't just make money—it means something.
Not because it was the perfect idea. Because it was the only idea that satisfied all four circles.
How to Find Yours
Here's the process. It's simple but not easy.
Grab a piece of paper. Draw four overlapping circles. Label them: Love, Skill, Need, Money.
Now fill them in honestly.
Circle 1: What do you love?
Not what sounds impressive. Not what you think you should love. What actually makes you lose track of time?
If you'd do it for free, it goes here. If you're only doing it for money, it doesn't.
Ask yourself: What topics could I discuss for hours without getting bored? What problems make me angry enough that I actually want to solve them? What would I still be doing even if nobody was watching?
Circle 2: What are you good at?
This isn't aspirational. This is current.
What do people already come to you for? What feels easy to you but hard for others? What have you done long enough that you could teach it to someone else right now, today, without additional research?
If you can't teach it today, you're still learning it. That's fine. But it's not in this circle yet.
Circle 3: What does the world need?
Not what you think they should need. What they're actually struggling with right now.
What problem keeps them awake at 3 AM? What do they complain about constantly? What are they already paying money to solve—even if the current solutions are terrible?
If you haven't talked to at least ten people who have this problem, you're guessing. Go validate before you build.
Circle 4: What can you be paid for?
People don't pay for effort. They pay for outcomes.
They pay to save time, make money, reduce pain, or gain status. If your idea doesn't clearly deliver one of these, it won't sell.
Can you articulate the ROI? Would someone pay you before you've even built it? Is there a clear path from your work to their wallet?
If not, you have a hobby idea, not a business idea.
Now look for the overlap.
Most people hit two circles easily. Three circles with effort. All four? That's rare.
If you're missing one:
Missing love? Pivot to an industry you actually care about.
Missing skill? Partner with someone who has it, or commit to developing it fast.
Missing need? Niche down to a more specific problem people are desperately trying to solve.
Missing money? Reframe the outcome so the value is impossible to ignore.
The goal isn't perfection. The goal is finding work that hits enough circles that you can sustain it without burning out or selling out.
What This Actually Looks Like
Let me give you three examples of people who found their overlap:
The burned-out corporate employee:
Loved writing and teaching. Good at explaining complex ideas simply. The world needed help escaping corporate without going broke. Could be paid through courses, coaching, and frameworks.
Ikigai: Teaching corporate employees to transition to freelancing through writing and consulting.
The exhausted freelancer:
Loved design, building systems, automation. Good at visual design and workflow optimization. Small businesses desperately needed better design systems. Could be paid through templates, productized services, and memberships.
Ikigai: Selling design templates and systems to small businesses. Passive income, no client grind.
The underpaid teacher:
Loved helping kids learn and creating curriculum. Good at lesson planning and engaging teaching methods. Homeschool parents were desperate for better resources. Could be paid through curriculum packs, teaching guides, and online courses.
Ikigai: Creating and selling homeschool curriculum to parents who valued education but rejected traditional schools.
The Truth About This Process
It took me years to figure this out.
Years of building businesses that made money but didn't matter. Years of chasing opportunities that checked three boxes but left the fourth empty. Years of wondering why success felt so hollow.
Every failure narrowed the field. Every "this isn't it" eliminated options until I finally found what was.
The process isn't linear. It's iterative. You test. You adjust. You test again.
But when you find it—when all four circles overlap—everything changes.
The work is still hard. Maybe harder. But it doesn't feel like grinding anymore.
It feels like building.
It's 2026. Here's What I Want You to Do.
Everyone's setting goals right now.
"I want to make $100K."
"I want to quit my job."
"I want to build a business."
Here's mine for you:
Figure out your four circles.
Not someday. This week.
Grab a piece of paper. Draw the circles. Answer the questions honestly.
Don't overthink it. Don't wait for perfect clarity. Just start mapping.
Then look for the overlap.
You don't need all four circles to be perfect. You just need to know where you're close and where you're missing.
Because once you know that, you know what to build. Or fix. Or walk away from.
That's how you go from wandering to building.
That's how you find work that doesn't just pay you—it sustains you.
That's your ikigai.
Talk soon,
Daniel
P.S. — If you're ready to make your first dollar online, I built a 14-day challenge that shows you exactly how. It's free, always. And if you don't make your first dollar online I will send you $100, no questions.