Written by: Vickie Sullivan | February 13, 2020
Love Your Problems
Confession: Sometimes I get down about silly political arguments. (Facebook memes, I’m looking at you.) My antidote: Listening to young people working hard to make the world a better place. It’s why I get on a plane and go to TED and Harvard every year.
It was during one of those presentations that this new pearl of wisdom emerged just in time for Valentine’s Day: Love the problem.
It’s tempting to tell yourself, “Hey I do that already.” But what too many of us really do is fall in love with our solution. We tend to keep our ideas as they are and look for places to fit in. (Hence the old saying: When you’re a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.)
Listen: Give This Up In the Name of Loving the Problem
But when we love a problem, we go all in. We ask deeper questions, like these: How did this happen?Why? What are the root causes?
When we explore the environment and the people, our options grow. Because the focus is on solving a problem, not promoting a solution. There’s a big difference.
So, in celebration of Valentine’s Day, I say let’s fall in love with the problems out there. When we love what’s going on in our marketplace, our options to serve can expand exponentially.
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