The hard way & the smart way to create value
There are two games of value creation. You're probably only playing the harder one.
This article is part of The Unseen, our work on decoding the systems and incentives that shape markets and opportunities.
You feel stuck.
You want to build something, create value, make your own way. But the feeling of "not having enough" is paralyzing. I don't have a unique product. I don't have the capital. I'm not a world-class expert.
So you get stuck in "pseudowork", all that analyzing, planning, and learning. Waiting for the perfect conditions that never arrive.
Let me tell you about two games being played in the world. The feeling you have isn’t a personal failing, but rather a sign you’re playing the harder game by default.
Game One is the Producer's Game. This is the one we're all taught to play. To win, you must own the means of production. You build the factory, grow the fruit, or spend a decade becoming the expert. It’s respectable. It’s also slow, expensive, and fantastically risky.
Game Two is the Connector's Game. The people who master this game understand a more leveraged truth: immense value isn't always created, it's often just trapped. Their job isn't to make things from scratch. Their job is to find that trapped value and set it free.
They don’t own the factory, they build a bridge to it. And they collect a toll for every crossing.
This is how you start seeing opportunities where everyone else sees a dead end.
First, Hunt for Complaints, Not Ideas
The biggest mental shift is right here. Stop asking, "What brilliant product can I invent?"
Start asking, "What are smart people complaining about?"
A complaint is a flashing neon sign pointing directly to an unmet need. The more emotional and specific the complaint, the more valuable the opportunity. It's the sound of trapped value.
A founder vents at a dinner party: "I desperately need marketing for my niche SaaS, but I can't afford an agency and don't have time to vet a million freelancers on Upwork."
A Producer hears this and thinks, "Maybe I should start a niche marketing agency." (A 5-year plan).
A Connector hears this and thinks, "I bet there’s a marketing genius on LinkedIn who just went freelance and thinks 'personal branding' is a type of coffee."
Your first job is simply to listen for the gapm the space between a well-defined frustration and an undiscovered solution. Go to a community you belong to. Find one comment that expresses clear frustration. Copy and paste it into a notebook.
You’ve just found your first gap.
Next, Find the Trapped Value
Once you have a specific complaint, your instinct will be to build the solution yourself.
Resist it. That's the Producer's game.
I repeat: do not try to become the expert.
The Connector’s move is to ask: "Who already has the solution but is failing to market it?" Value is often trapped by incompetence in a secondary skill.
The brilliant coder who hates sales.
The artisan with a local following but zero online presence.
The Substack writer with a world-class newsletter but no idea how to find readers off-platform.
They all have a 10/10 skill trapped by a 2/10 marketing presence.
I saw this play out perfectly with a friend. She noticed companies complaining about how hard it was to create high-quality short-form video. Instead of buying a camera and learning Adobe Premiere, she found a handful of incredibly talented video editors in Southeast Asia on a niche creator forum. They were technical wizards whose world-class skill was trapped behind a language barrier and poorly written profiles.
She didn't become a video editor. She became the trusted bridge between Western demand and global talent.
Take the complaint you found. Do a quick search on X or LinkedIn for people who solve that problem. Ignore the polished agencies. Look for the individual practitioner with deep expertise in their feed but a clumsy, un-optimized profile. You may have just found trapped value.
Finally, Build the Smallest Bridge Possible
You have the need. You have the solution. The final temptation is to overbuild. "I need a website! A CRM! A legal entity!"
Stop. That’s just more pseudowork.
🔳 Your first dollar of profit is infinitely more valuable than your hundredth page of a business plan.
The Connector’s first bridge is always the most lightweight, minimal thing that proves the connection is viable. Often, it's just an email, an introduction. Or a shared Notion doc.
My friend's multi-million dollar "bridge"? It started with a simple email to a company: "I saw you're looking for video help. I represent a small collective of vetted, top-tier editors. Open to seeing a portfolio?"
She owned nothing but the connection. Her profit was the spread between what the company paid her and what she paid the editor.
A pure Connector.
Look at the two sides you've identified. What is the lowest-friction way to introduce them? Draft a two-sentence email: "I saw you were looking for X. I know someone who is excellent at this. Would you be open to an introduction?" You don't even have to send it. Just proving to yourself how simple the bridge can be is the win.
Sayonara to the "Producer" Ego
Playing the Connector's game requires you to abandon the idea that your worth is tied to your hands-on labor.
Your value is in your vision. Your insight. Your ability to see two disconnected points and your courage to build the simplest possible link between them.
You don't need a grand idea or a pile of cash to start. You just need to listen for a complaint and have the audacity to ask, "Who already has the answer?"
The world has enough producers waiting for permission. It needs more Connectors.
Hi!
I'm Yuehan. After a decade spent building businesses in both the West and China, I'm sharing my most valuable, road-tested lessons right here on Substack.
Since I'm starting from scratch on this side of the world, your support means a great deal. If this piece resonated, a restack or a simple ❤️ is massively appreciated
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