I get angry every time I hear people saying it’s a rough time to start a business and then they come up with a lot of old ideas in old markets solving old problems of which I often wonder if they are real problems. I’m not pretending that it is easy though, but the market is not the problem. It’s not seeing the opportunities.

But luckily some of us do see the ocean of business opportunities in the challenges we’re facing in today’s world. Maybe the secret is that we’re not looking for a business opportunity, but are triggered by some issue and come up with a solution with impact, which also turns out to be marketable.

Some time ago I watched an interview with Boyan Slat (20). I’m so impressed by this young guy and his incredible project The Ocean Clean Up. It’s amazing to hear this ‘boy next door’ talking about his major innovation. You may have heard about it, but if not he invented a technology to extract, prevent, and...