Skip to main content

Obstacles as Opportunites

In my entrepreneurial journey, I have been fortunate enough to have met both good and bad mentors and entrepreneurs.  The one thing that make a good entrepreneur it the fact that KNOW the the journey is going to be hard and arduous, but they decide to do it anyway.  What makes a poor entrepreneur is a person who thinks there is a shortcut, or an magic wand that will make the "successful."  Yes, some successful entrepreneurs "look" like they just magically made their fortune, but that is such an illusion.  Everyone of them had to fight, and scratch, and claw and yes, a few got a little bit luckier than most, but it was NEVER easy.  And if you think creating something new is easy, stop right now.  You will never make it.

Actually, most of the successful entrepreneurs had to pivot when they ran into an unforeseen obstacle in their path. Yes, even the mighty Google did not know how it was going to make money until someone came up with the idea for AdWords. YouTube was one week away from closing its doors before Google bought them.  The bottom line is that we all have to face obstacles, what we do with them makes all the difference in the world as this story highlights.

The Obstacle in Our Path
Long ago, a king had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock.

Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. On approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded.

As the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many others never understand: Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one's condition.
Although this may be a old fable,it highlights how a seemingly difficult problem can be a huge and profitable opportunity for you and your company. So, ask yourself what difficult problems or situations, that if you apply yourself and perhaps great effort, can be changed into in new break through or product?  As I often say, "Necessity maybe the mother of invention, but dissatisfaction is its father."

 Customer complaints, new competition, changes in the market, a loss of a big customer, these are all great catalysts to look at a situation a different way, and "discover" a new solution. Yes, it takes effort, but anything worthwhile in achieving, always does.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Moldy Middle

While taking statistics during my quest to get an MBA and while earning my engineering degree, the professors always emphasized the importance of finding the statistical mean of any population by using the Central Mean Theorem (a.k.a the highest point of the Bell Curve). As an engineer, this was essential in order to maximize throughput, minimize cost and waste, and ultimately make a better, faster, cheaper widget. A funny thing happened on the way to the dark side of marketing. I discovered that the only thing in the middle of the road was quite literally dead road kill. I do not know if you remember stores like Bradlees, Ames and Service Merchandise (just to name a few), but they all folded because the environment changed and they were caught trying to service the mythological “average customer.” Part of that change came when Wal-Mart began its juggernaut with the discount department store. Wal-Mart did two things right: 1) Focused on “mobile” consumers, and 2) Fo...
21 comments
Read more

5 Lessons on How to Treat People

Here is a listing of stories that hopefully help you understand how to treat people... the author is unknown.... the wisdom is priceless. 1. First Important Lesson - "Know The Cleaning Lady" During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?" Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade. "Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say "hello." I've never forgotten th...
4 comments
Read more

Traits of an Entrepreneur

I will begin and end this article with two quotations. The first is from Edward Rogers: "You don't deserve to be called an entrepreneur unless you've mortgaged your house to the business." --Edward S. (Ted) Rogers  This one sentence pretty much says it all. Entrepreneurs are not necessary gamblers, but they are willing to put everything they own, or go all in, in order to make it happen. In the classical sense an entrepreneur is define as anyone who has possession of a new enterprise, endeavor, venture or idea, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks associated with the development, growth, and outcome. He or she is an organizer who combines land, labor, material resources, and/or capital to create and market new goods, products, or services. The term "entrepreneur" is loaned from the French and was first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon, where the term was applied to the type of persona who was willing to take upon th...
8 comments
Read more