The Key Factor in Your Success

Overcoming Problems

Think about something you accomplished.

Why was it a success? Did you encounter problems along the way? Were you able to resolve the problems?

Think about something you consider a failure.

Why was it a failure? Did you encounter problems along the way? Were you unable to resolve the problems?

Often, the difference between an endeavour being successful and a failure, is how many problems occurred and if they were successfully resolved.

When you can short-circuit problems, that is, keep them from occurring, the effort to reach your objective is lower.

When you can recognize and resolve problems before they balloon into catastrophes, you have fewer headaches.

My starter marriage was a failure because I didn’t resolve the problems that occurred. My second marriage is a success (so far) because my spouse is very good at anticipating and minimizing problems.

The key to getting results is how well you can solve problems.

Success

Before you can tackle, much less solve, a problem, you need to clearly define what “success” is.

Without knowing the destination, you will never know when you arrive. Without knowing the destination, you can’t envision what types of problems may occur along the route. Without knowing the destination, you may not know how to begin the journey.

I proposed (in the previous article) that “goals” are non-obvious problems and should be treated with the same reverence as traditional problems. Any task that you are trying to accomplish, whether a simple or a complex one, will encounter issues or challenges that complicate or interfere with reaching the end.

The caveat is that: the more important or complex the goal, the more time should be invested in identifying, considering, and mitigating potential problems.

Success is directly proportional to your ability to solve problems.
- Gary Bozek (2022-08-29)

For example, if the goal is to get groceries and the parking lot is full, you have several options. You can walk a bit farther, reduce the number of goods you purchase and carry back, or postpone the trip until another day when the store isn’t as busy.

Although there may be a lot of frustration with the problem you encountered, in the grand scheme of things — it’s not that serious. Really!!!

If you return from the grocery store empty-handed, I doubt your cupboard is bare. You won’t starve; you won’t die. It’s not that serious of a problem!

On the other hand, if you have a medical emergency and the ambulance encounters a traffic jam on the way to the hospital, that is much more serious! You expect the ambulance driver to do what he can to resolve the situation and get you to the hospital.

When you have a high-stakes goal, the problems are high-stakes, also.

Therefore, you need to identify potential problems and eliminate them before they undermine your success.

Identifying Problems

The primary reason I spend so much time discussing problems is because of my knowledge and experience as a project manager.

One of the primary tasks of a project manager is to mitigate risk.

Risk mitigation is a process to identify potential issues, assess their potential impact on the success of a project, and take steps to minimize those impacts on the project. Your goal or task may not be as big as a multi-million dollar project, but your project is immensely significant to you!

You must invest appropriate attention and deal with problems to accomplish an important goal.

If you don’t, then:

Problems beget more problems. Deal with issues early, or they will multiply like rabbits, as one problem gives birth to others.

Like low pressure in a tire, ignoring the issue will create additional problems that require more effort.

It may take a few minutes to top up a tire. If you don’t invest that time, it will take a lot more time to change a flat tire, possibly making you late for an important meeting or having other severe impacts. Worse, it could cause an accident. Then you are dealing with repair costs, losing the use of your vehicle, or impacting lives.

Problems don’t disappear by ignoring them. Just because you don’t see it (physical) or admit it (metaphoric) doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Burying your head in the sand is a sure way for a problem to grow large enough to sneak up behind you and bite you in the butt.

Problems tend to compound. Like a snowball rolling down the hill, problems pick up speed and mass.

If you catch problems early, they can be easy to handle. If you wait, they can grow in size and momentum. If you wait too long, they can knock you, and your project, over.

You never eliminate all problems. There will always be problems — a larger goal will have more problems.

The aim isn’t to eliminate ALL problems - the Law of Diminishing Returns kicks in. The focus is on identifying the problem(s) that pose the greatest risk to your goal and mitigating them.

The goal is to solve the big problems until those that remain are trivial.

Tools

The biggest asset you have to reach your goals is your problem-solving ability.

I equate problem-solving with the fulcrum of a lever.

Problems will accumulate and push the fulcrum further away from you — increasing the effort you must expend and decreasing the result.

Problem-solving allows you to eliminate problems and pull the fulcrum closer to you. When the fulcrum moves closer, you get more leverage and expend less effort to get a better result.

Problem-solving is like building a road through the wilderness. You expend significant energy going around trees, over rocks, and through dips to reach your destination before the road is built. After the road exists, it takes less energy to go in a smooth, straight line to the same place.

You achieve your goal as effectively and efficiently as possible by removing the obstacles.

The degree to which you solve problems is the degree to which you are successful.

The next article in the series will introduce the Cynical Methodology  -  a framework to establish and accomplish goals.

Be Cynical,

GB

Summary

TL;DR: The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is “Problem-Solving.” That is how you achieve success!!!

Wisdom:

• on your way to any worthy goal, you will encounter problems
• identify potential problems and eliminate them before they undermine your success.
• risk mitigation is a method to identify potential issues, assess their potential impact on the success of a project, and take steps to minimize those impacts on the project
• when you leverage problem-solving, you complete tasks in less time

To extract the best value from this article, you should have read this first: Good News - Everything Is a Problem. If this is the first article of mine you have read, you should start at Read This First!.

The next article in this series is: The Key to Your Success is Using a Methodology.