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My Greatest Lesson of 2024

Writer's picture: HyperspaceHyperspace

What do you do when you run into a problem that is unsolvable?


As business owners, we wouldn’t be where we are if we weren’t indomitable problem solvers. At the most basic level, businesses are simply machines built to solve specific problems and receive money in exchange. We are the builders of those machines. “Unsolvable?” someone says. “Watch me!” I reply.


All problems have solutions, I believed, (it just takes the correct application of smarts, work ethic, and will) until last year when, for the first time in my career, I ran headlong into an unsolvable one.


At first, I responded as per usual:


Step 1 - Apply logic. Understand how the thing in question works. Arrange it to work the way I want it to. If people are involved, align them to my plan by reasoning with them.


But sometimes I don’t know how the thing works and can’t figure it out without trying something and seeing what happens. Sometimes people aren’t interested in being reasoned with.


Step 2 - Work the problem. Put in the hours and sweat needed to test hypotheses and build necessary skills. Develop relationships until I can effectively influence my collaborators.


But sometimes that’s not enough. Sometimes I get really stuck.


Step 3 - Sheer force of will. Fixate on the desired future state and take whatever measures are necessary to get there. This may include blowing up the problem and rebuilding from scratch.


When I got to Step 3, I was flummoxed. You see, my required outcome had two parts to it. The way the situation was, they had become mutually exclusive. Meanwhile, blowing the problem up (my favored solution at this stage) would have destroyed something irreplaceable.


So, I moved on to the much-hated Step 4 - when all else fails, ask for help.


Turning to someone I respected and knew specialized in solving problems like the one I faced, I booked time in his schedule and arrived, ready to be equipped with new strategies, trained in new tactics, and deploy them to achieve that elusive yet certain solution.


He took one look at my problem and told me there was no solution. It was unsolvable. Furthermore, the only way to succeed was to stop trying to master the situation and instead master myself.


This was not what I wanted to hear. That didn’t mean it wasn’t true. After a rigorous wrestling match with these new ideas, I came around.


I had to own up to the fact that, throughout this process, I had become increasingly frustrated with the problem until my frustration built into anger, and that anger was now hindering me. That anger, he pointed out, was solely my responsibility. Our circumstances do not cause our emotions. We do.


The next question one naturally asks is, “how?” Well, I’m working on it. When I’ve got it figured out, I’ll let you know.


If you too are a Star Trek fan, you may remember an episode from Next Generation when the android Data loses what is essentially a game of Go. Obsessed with the thought that this could only have been caused by a malfunction, he locks himself away running self-diagnostics, meanwhile his crew gets into a situation where they really need him. The wise Captain Picard brings him out of his tailspin with this advice: “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life.”


Like Data, I had to stop obsessing over what I deemed my failure and instead focus on finding the next opportunity. Even the best of us can’t solve every problem, but the difference between losing and being beaten is self mastery. Most problems I can solve, and I will.

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