On problems and solutions

Emma and I drove to a wedding in Colorado last weekend. I’ve always loved road trips. Something about the combination of being on the move but having the finality of a destination always appealed to me.

The discussion of what audio book to listen to on our drive is always a hot topic prior to heading out. This past weekend it was the incredible Shoe Dog, recommended by a few friends.

I’ve been a Nike devotee ever since my Dad, trying to teach me about the stock market, let me choose a few companies to buy shares in when I was a kid. Nike was top on the list.

I can still remember how cool I felt when my Dad told me that I “owned” a portion of Nike as we’d review the financial statements that were mailed to our house on a quarterly basis emblazoned with the trademark Swoosh atop the letterhead.

I was ignorant to much of the founding story of Nike. Growing up in the 90s and the era of Air Jordan it’s hard to imagine Nike as anything other than the behemoth multi-billion dollar enterprise that it is today.

If you’ve read the book, you’ll know that it is essentially a list of problems which Knight and Blue Ribbon Sports (the precursor to Nike) faced in the pursuit of doubling their sales every year for 18 years prior to going public in 1980.

Knight and his quirky founding team are faced with problem after problem for nearly 2 decades before going public. The commitment it takes to be faced with hurdle after hurdle for 20 years before seeing much success (at least monetarily) is always impressive, but it had me thinking about the nature of Problems as we drove through the Rockies.

Last week’s newsletter finished with a wonderful quote from Seth Godin, “Problems have solutions. That’s what makes them problems.” There are three additional rules about problems which are important to remember whenever you are faced with a problem in your own life.

The 4 rules of any problem (and things to remember as you try to solve them):

1. Problems have solutions. That’s what makes them problems.

2. Problems arise, it’s what they do.

3. You either look back with shame or pride.

4. Problems seem most intractable at two points, when they arise and right before you solve them.

Problems have solutions that’s what makes them problems

We talked about this last week so I won’t add much here. Just remember that your perception of a problem will largely dictate the headspace with which you seek to solve that problem. You can do so from a place of optimism or pessimism.

One of those two ways is rooted in your capacity to get to work the other is rooted in a cycle of self-pity which is counterproductive.

Problems arise, it’s what they do

Expecting to cruise through life without facing any problems is a recipe for unhappiness.

If the happiness equation can be expressed as:

Happiness = Expectations < Reality

Then the best way to be happy is to expect problems to arise. I was listening to a podcast recently where one of the hosts was talking about selling a company and the number of times he had deals on the table which fell through at the last moment.

It was the second time he’d sold a company though and he said something that stuck with me, “deals fall through, it’s just what they do.” This mindset helped him keep going and of course ultimately sell his company.

Take the same approach to problems, “problems arise, it’s what they do.”

Remember, it never always gets worse.

You either look back with shame or pride

Readers of this newsletter know that I am a great lover of Back to the Future. I call this third rule of all problems the Back to the Future exercise.

I was speaking with a friend recently and we both agreed that in any trying time in your life the best thing you can do is stop, take a breath and ask yourself a simple question, “Once this situation has passed or problem has been solved, will I look back on the way I reacted with shame or pride?”

Putting your current self in a future state is a powerful way to do two things:

1. Remind yourself that this will pass

2. Know that you can’t control what happens, but you can control your response

If you are the hero of your own life’s story (I believe we all are) how would that hero react to this problem? Would they squirm, complain, and blame others? Or would they take a deep breath, own it, and get to work?

Problems seem most intractable at two points, when they arise and right before you solve them

When I was 14 I took my first big backpacking trip in the West with YMCA Camp Widjiwagan to the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming.

This trip was foundational to my life and in many ways set me on a course to join the Marines and live in the West to this day.

Early in the trip as we ascended to the high point of our journey I was introduced to a painful truth of the mountains which any hiker knows well, False Summits.

A False Summit is when, from your perspective climbing a mountain, you believe you are about to make it to the high point of your climb only to realize as you crest the peak that the False Summit hid the true high point from view and you still have further to go.

The problem lifecycle shares a lot in common with False Summits. Problems seem most unsolvable at two points, when they first rear their ugly head and right before you solve them (the False Summit).

Knowing this makes solving problems less intimidating. You should expect to feel the most overwhelmed both when the problem initially presents itself and right before you solve it.

That means there’s only one thing to do, keep going.