This term meaning “Do not despair” was originally used in The Odes a collection in four books of Latin lyric poems by Horace - Nil desperandum Teucro duce at auspice Teucro ‘no need to despair with Teucer as your leader and Teucer to protect you’. This seems particularly apposite these days as we live in such uncertain political times. It is very easy to despair.
However, every such political problem may represent a possible opportunity, hard though it can be to see sometimes. Whatever your views or situation it is a time to be positive and look for these opportunities in our professional lives. See this short Harvard Business School article Turning a Problem into an Opportunity and this Forbes article which says In this view of the world, “problems” are not problematic -- rather, they're helpful opportunities that can contribute to our growth and improvement.
I also like this blog 3 Problems That Became Opportunities to Change The World which cites the example of the creation of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928. At the time, Fleming was experimenting with the influenza virus in the Laboratory of the Inoculation Department at St. Mary’s Hospital in London.
Often described as a careless lab technician, Fleming returned from a two-week vacation to find that a mold had developed on an accidentally contaminated staphylococcus culture plate. Upon examination of the mold, he noticed that the culture prevented the growth of staphylococci.
The solution to the problem ended up being the thing he discarded by accident, but he recognised the opportunity.
Here is another good article on Turning Problems into Opportunities with a lot of interesting examples from history which commences In a 1959 speech, John F. Kennedy famously said: “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters—one represents danger and one represents opportunity.” Although today it is widely recognized that this is not the correct interpretation of the Chinese characters, President Kennedy’s wisdom about a crisis yielding unique opportunities may be more important than ever.
As another great political leader Winston Churchill said “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity, the optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”
In the end of the day I think it comes down to having the right attitude to appreciate the potential for opportunity – "Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right."- Henry Ford.
However, every such political problem may represent a possible opportunity, hard though it can be to see sometimes. Whatever your views or situation it is a time to be positive and look for these opportunities in our professional lives. See this short Harvard Business School article Turning a Problem into an Opportunity and this Forbes article which says In this view of the world, “problems” are not problematic -- rather, they're helpful opportunities that can contribute to our growth and improvement.
I also like this blog 3 Problems That Became Opportunities to Change The World which cites the example of the creation of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928. At the time, Fleming was experimenting with the influenza virus in the Laboratory of the Inoculation Department at St. Mary’s Hospital in London.
Often described as a careless lab technician, Fleming returned from a two-week vacation to find that a mold had developed on an accidentally contaminated staphylococcus culture plate. Upon examination of the mold, he noticed that the culture prevented the growth of staphylococci.
The solution to the problem ended up being the thing he discarded by accident, but he recognised the opportunity.
Here is another good article on Turning Problems into Opportunities with a lot of interesting examples from history which commences In a 1959 speech, John F. Kennedy famously said: “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters—one represents danger and one represents opportunity.” Although today it is widely recognized that this is not the correct interpretation of the Chinese characters, President Kennedy’s wisdom about a crisis yielding unique opportunities may be more important than ever.
As another great political leader Winston Churchill said “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity, the optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”
In the end of the day I think it comes down to having the right attitude to appreciate the potential for opportunity – "Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right."- Henry Ford.
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