Problem = Opportunity

Yeah, I know, clichés stink.  But, they're around for a reason: most of them have at least some truth to them.  This one, in my opinion, is no exception. 

Last week, in one of my other business interests, my partner and I encountered a big, unexpected problem: a key team member decided to leave on short notice, to focus her attention on other priorities in her life. And, the problem occurred at the busiest time of the year for that business. 

My first reaction was the typical, "Oh, geez (or, er, maybe some other word). This is bad.  What are we going to do now?"

This worry and ruminating went on for a while - probably most of the rest of that day. 

And then, I remembered: none of us choose what life gives us, but all of us choose (consciously or not) how we respond. 

So, I started to think, "Wait a minute, this isn't ALL bad.  Sure, it's an inconvenience now, but it also gives us the chance to make a change in how we're doing things, and maybe even find someone more suited to the role."

As I began to play with the possibilities, I started to get excited by what we might be able to do, and how we might be able to take this problem and leverage it.  

In the end, within the space of three days, we had found and hired a new and highly-experienced team member who, as it turns out, was looking for exactly the job we were offering.  We also restructured how we were doing things, making a number of improvements to some of the systems and processes we had in place.  

And here's the key point: the size of the opportunity has a proportional relationship with the size of the problem.  I don't think either one of us would have been as motivated or open to making so many changes so quickly, had we not really needed to do something significant.  

So, next time you're faced with a big problem, see if you can hit the "pause" button on your worries sooner rather than later, and look for the silver lining in the cloud.  I hope I will.