This story is excerpted from the cover story from INSTORE’s January 2026 edition, “The Alternative Manager’s Toolkit” by Chris Burslem.
Challenge/Task: Finding the Next Big Opportunity
Traditional Playbook: Many business owners rely on scanning industry trends, reading the business news, conducting SWOT analyses, attending conferences at trade shows, or following market reports to find new opportunities. The focus is on analyzing data, competitive positioning, and strategic planning to find the “next big thing.”
The Problem: Over-reliance on trend-spotting and formal analyses may cause you to overlook opportunities right in front of you — those that can be unlocked by genuine curiosity or personal passion. The business school approach can lead you to chase shiny objects that aren’t aligned with your core strengths or values, resulting in missed chances or scattered efforts.
The Alternative Manager’s Fix: Follow your curiosity. Embrace the mindset advocated by the tech investor Paul Graham of exploring ideas and questions that genuinely fascinate you. Rather than trying to predict what others will do, pursue what intrigues you, experiment intuitively, and see where your passions lead. Innovation emerges naturally when you are curious and attentive to what excites you. And it’s not just business opportunities. Curiosity can lead you to explore new technologies, new work processes, or totally unrelated fields. It may just rekindle your enthusiasm in your current business should it happen to be flagging.
How to Make It Happen
- Dedicate time on a weekly basis to “idea shopping” based on your interests and questions: What do you naturally wonder about? “Notice gaps, explore promising ones. This is how practically everyone who’s done great work has done it, from painters to physicists,” says Graham in his essay “How to Do Great Work.”
- Pay attention to your personal interests and where your energy flows; these are often clues to unexplored market opportunities. “What are you excessively curious about—curious to a degree that would bore most other people? That’s what you’re looking for,” says Graham.
- Try asking yourself: If you were going to take a break from “serious” work to work on something just because it would be really interesting, what would you do? “The answer is probably more important than it seems,” Graham says.
- Be open to serendipity — follow tangents in your work, conversations, and reading. The tech investor Chris Sacca says he tells ChatGPT to adopt the persona of Buckminster Fuller to discuss random ideas as he walks through the woods.
- There is an important caveat. This is not a recommendation to become a dilettante or to spread yourself too thin pursuing many projects. But if you’re looking for the next big thing—and aren’t we all—then an approach based on what excites your curiosity may well be the best path to success.
The Takeaway
Finding opportunities isn’t just about analyzing external signals — sometimes, the best ideas come from simply following your curiosity. Trust your inner explorer, experiment boldly, and you might discover opportunities others overlook, all fueled by authentic passion and genuine interest.
Honoring a Legacy: How Smith & Son Jewelers Exceeded Every Goal With Wilkerson
When Andrew Smith decided to close the Springfield, Massachusetts location of Smith & Son Jewelers, the decision came down to family. His father was retiring after 72 years in the business, and Andrew wanted to spend more time with his children and soon-to-arrive grandchildren.
For this fourth-generation jeweler whose great-grandfather founded the company in 1918, closing the 107-year-old Springfield location required the right partner. Smith chose Wilkerson, and the experience exceeded expectations from start to finish.
"Everything they told me was 100% true," Smith says. "The ease and use of all their tools was wonderful."
The consultants' knowledge and expertise proved invaluable. Smith and his father set their own financial goal, but Wilkerson proposed three more ambitious targets. "We thought we would never make it," Smith explains. "We were dead wrong. We hit our first goal, second goal and third goal. It was amazing."
Smith's recommendation is emphatic: "I would never be able to do what they did by myself."
