I am currently on holiday in France enjoying the sun and doing what the French call some bricolage (DIY or handywork). In particular I had to replace a plastic storage unit that got broken into at the back of our garage. I thought a wooden two-foot-high box like chest would be a more secure option. So I duly bought one online, loaded what was delivered into the back of my car and drove down to the Mediterranean on the excellent French autoroutes. I did think it looked rather large as I put panel after panel in the back of the car but was busy and in a hurry so gave it no second thought.
I was rather surprised to discover when I finally inspected my purchase properly in the garage in France that it was not a chest at all but a four by two-foot mini shed complete with doors and roof with asphalt! Not wanting or actually able to take it back to the UK, despite some initial annoyance and uncertainty, I built it anyway. After some inevitable trials and tribulations, including the purchase and fitting of a new shelf, I ended up with a better storage solution which was still reasonably compact, has more space and a padlock fitting to deter the local thieves.
The best business and professional leaders I have worked with have had one characteristic in common. Take them a problem and they look at it with a fresh mind and seek out not only the solution but the opportunities the issue and its resolution may bring.
See for example this article Leaders Don't Fix Problems, They Turn Them Into Opportunities which suggests The ability to not just solve a problem but to turn that problem into an opportunity is the mark of true leadership. While here is another article How to Change Your Mindset to See Problems as Opportunities from the same source which advises Talk to any successful entrepreneur, or any professional with a positive attitude, and you'll find one key trait in common: all of them have a unique mentality that allows them to handle challenges differently. Rather than seeing problems as burdensome forces of opposition, they see problems as opportunities--opportunities to learn, grow, improve, or adjust in a way that leaves them better off than before the problem existed.
Here are some examples of Turning Problems into Opportunities which includes the now ubiquitous Post-it Notes that resulted from a glue that was being developed but failed to stick things together.
I also like this interesting Harvard Business Review article which discusses an example of two managers faced with the same challenge — one approached it as a problem to overcome, and the other, a possibility for reinvention.
“In the middle of difficulty,”said Albert Einstein, “lies opportunity.”
Or as John F. Kennedy said “When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters-one represents danger, the other represents opportunity.”
I was rather surprised to discover when I finally inspected my purchase properly in the garage in France that it was not a chest at all but a four by two-foot mini shed complete with doors and roof with asphalt! Not wanting or actually able to take it back to the UK, despite some initial annoyance and uncertainty, I built it anyway. After some inevitable trials and tribulations, including the purchase and fitting of a new shelf, I ended up with a better storage solution which was still reasonably compact, has more space and a padlock fitting to deter the local thieves.
The best business and professional leaders I have worked with have had one characteristic in common. Take them a problem and they look at it with a fresh mind and seek out not only the solution but the opportunities the issue and its resolution may bring.
See for example this article Leaders Don't Fix Problems, They Turn Them Into Opportunities which suggests The ability to not just solve a problem but to turn that problem into an opportunity is the mark of true leadership. While here is another article How to Change Your Mindset to See Problems as Opportunities from the same source which advises Talk to any successful entrepreneur, or any professional with a positive attitude, and you'll find one key trait in common: all of them have a unique mentality that allows them to handle challenges differently. Rather than seeing problems as burdensome forces of opposition, they see problems as opportunities--opportunities to learn, grow, improve, or adjust in a way that leaves them better off than before the problem existed.
Here are some examples of Turning Problems into Opportunities which includes the now ubiquitous Post-it Notes that resulted from a glue that was being developed but failed to stick things together.
I also like this interesting Harvard Business Review article which discusses an example of two managers faced with the same challenge — one approached it as a problem to overcome, and the other, a possibility for reinvention.
“In the middle of difficulty,”said Albert Einstein, “lies opportunity.”
Or as John F. Kennedy said “When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters-one represents danger, the other represents opportunity.”
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