You Don’t Need Everyone to Like Your Product – You Just Need the Right Ones
- Oct 29, 2025
- 4 min read
Written by Houda Dahhou, Founder of Bellar
Houda Dahhou is the founder of Bellar, a luxury fashion brand redefining travel accessories with her patented, collapsible boater hat. A Columbia alumna and former grain trader, she brings global insight and timeless elegance to problem-solving through design.
In a world obsessed with mass appeal, it’s easy for entrepreneurs to forget that true success rarely comes from trying to please everyone. In this article, Houda Dahhou, inventor and founder of Bellar, the world’s first collapsible boater hat, shares a refreshing perspective on why building for the right few is far more powerful than chasing the approval of the many.
As entrepreneurs, we often fall into the trap of thinking that our product must appeal to everyone, that mass approval somehow validates our idea. But the truth is, not everybody is going to want what you’re offering. And that’s not just okay, it’s necessary.
In fact, the sooner you accept that your product isn’t for everyone, the stronger your brand, your business, and your peace of mind will become.
1. You don’t need eight billion customers
It’s easy to forget that becoming a millionaire doesn’t require eight billion people to buy from you. You don’t even need millions. You only need a few thousand people who truly understand and value your solution.
The goal of entrepreneurship isn’t to achieve unanimous global approval. It’s to solve a problem for a specific group of people who genuinely need and appreciate your product.
Trying to please everyone leads to chaos operationally, emotionally, and creatively. If every person in the world wanted your product tomorrow, you wouldn’t be able to serve them properly. Quality would collapse under pressure, customer service would explode, production would be rushed, and your brand would lose the soul that made it special in the first place.
Success comes from depth, not breadth. It comes from serving a focused group of people exceptionally well, not from chasing the impossible dream of pleasing everyone.
2. Validate the problem by feeling it yourself
The best business ideas don’t come from brainstorming sessions or market studies. They come from personal frustration.
If you’ve experienced a real pain point yourself, then you’ve already validated the need for your product.
That’s how I created Bellar, the world’s first collapsible boater hat designed for women who love to travel light. I was tired of crushed hats in my suitcase and the frustration of having to choose between style and practicality.
That personal pain point kept me going when doubts and challenges arose. Because when you know deep down that the problem is real, because you’ve lived it, no external opinion can shake your conviction. You don’t have to wonder if someone out there needs your solution. You already know that at least one person does, you. And chances are, thousands of others quietly feel the same.
3. Not everyone will get it, and they don’t need to
Once you start sharing your idea with the world, you’ll quickly realize something, many people will criticize your product simply because it’s not relevant to them.
And that’s fine.
If someone doesn’t wear hats, they’ll never understand the frustration of traveling with one. They’ll say things like, “Just wear it on your head,” or “That’s why hat boxes exist.”
Yes, I know hat boxes exist, but I also know that in 2025, most travelers don’t want to drag around a big box just to protect one accessory. Our suitcases are already overflowing with makeup, shoes, hair tools, and everything else we think we need. Adding a bulky hat box on top of that isn’t practical anymore.
So, I designed a hat that collapses flat, fits in a suitcase, and pops back perfectly into shape.
Some people still won’t see the point, and that’s okay. They’re not my target audience. The ones who do get it, the ones who light up when they hear the words “collapsible hat,” those are my people. Those are the customers worth building for.
4. Criticism isn’t a sign of failure, it’s proof of originality
Every new idea faces resistance. People are comfortable with what they know, and innovation naturally challenges that comfort. So, when you hear negative comments, it often means you’ve created something different enough to be noticed.
Your job isn’t to convince the skeptics, it’s to serve the believers.
Your real supporters will recognize the value in what you’ve built because they’ve felt the same pain, experienced the same frustration, or shared the same dream. They’ll become your first customers, your early adopters, and your loudest advocates.
5. Build for the few, not the many
Focus on the ones who get it, the niche who actually needs what you’ve made.
If you can make a thousand people fall in love with your product, genuinely fall in love with it, you’ll never have to worry about the millions who don’t.
That’s how strong brands are built, by going deep, not wide.
You don’t need to appeal to everyone. You just need to resonate deeply with the right ones.
Final thoughts
The moment you stop trying to convince the world to like your idea is the moment you start building something meaningful. The truth is, not everybody will like your product, but that’s precisely what makes it valuable. Because the people who do love it will love it fiercely.
So, if you’re an entrepreneur wrestling with doubt, remember this, you don’t need the world to believe in your idea. You just need to believe in it long enough for the right people to find you.
And they will.
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Read more from Houda Dahhou
Houda Dahhou, Founder of Bellar
Houda Dahhou is an entrepreneur, a Columbia University graduate, and a former global grain trader with over 5 years of experience in the commodities sector. After years of exploring side hustles, her love for travel and timeless fashion led her to create Bellar, a brand built around a patented collapsible hat that merges elegance with functionality. Inspired by a hat destroyed on holiday, she spent years developing a refined solution for women who travel in style. Houda brings a practical, international perspective to entrepreneurship, design, and innovation. Her mission: to create beautiful, packable fashion that fits a mobile, modern lifestyle.
