I was chatting this week with an entrepreneur who’s trying to figure out how to solve a problem outside his expertise. This founder is facing the starting-from-scratch dilemma. He’s trying to solve a problem and figure out what his next action should be, but it’s so far outside his domain he doesn’t even know where to start.

Experience gives you the best shot at resolving a problem or determining your next action. You can acquire experience by doing things yourself (and often failing) or by learning from what other people learned by doing things. When I’m starting from scratch, I like the second option.

I crystallize the problem I want to solve and write it down. Then I find material from people who’ve solved the problem and had outsize success. Books are my preference because they’re long form and more thought out. But if I’m trying to do something tactical or something that requires recent experience, I listen to podcasts where the person explains what they did (not someone else giving their opinion or interpretation). I want the wisdom straight from the horse’s mouth. If possible, I try to learn from the experiences of several people.

This usually solves the starting-from-scratch issue. It doesn’t magically give me a solution to my problem or tell me what action to take, but it often gets me 70% to 75% there.

I then try to figure out how to apply what I learned from others to my situation. Copying exactly what they did usually doesn’t work because their situation was different from mine. Once I figure this out, I’m close to 100%. I know where to start, and I have a good idea of how I want to solve the problem and what the next action to take is.

I still fail and learn more along the way, but the entire process is much faster because I’m not learning foundational lessons from the ground up. Instead, I’m taking what works and building on it.

The next time you need to solve a problem or figure out what action to take but don’t know where to start, consider getting clear on the problem you’re trying to solve (write it down) and finding books or other content from people who’ve solved that exact problem. Learn from their experiences and try to figure out how you can apply what they learned to your situation. It isn’t perfect, but it’s a lot quicker than the alternative.