Navigating the subjective nature of an entrepreneur's ideas

Henry Ford had a saying that if he listened to his customer, he wouldn't have been around. Reason being: Who knew there was a market for cars until cars were made?  He could have asked people, "would you like a machine that will take you around and you can control it to get places faster?" Well, of course everyone would have said "yes," but that's half the battle. And people's actions are a lot different, at times, than their responses.

If you're lucky and your business/product only takes a few bucks (relatively) to produce, a good idea is to create it and see what your friends and family think. If they say "yeah, great idea! but I am ok" you can tell that maybe it's a fun idea, but if they don't want it or need it, why create it?  Unless you realize they aren't your target market. You wouldn't pitch a mortgage to Bill Gates because he doesn't get mortgages for his house, right?  But if their reaction is "awesome idea, how can I get one?" then you know you're onto something and you should explore further.

If you're unlucky and your business idea is brilliant, but it takes a lot of money to create, have fun going around to all the venture and angel funds and trying to convince them your idea is great and everyone will love it. Walt Disney went to 300+ banks before someone said yes to Walt Disney studios.