success demands trading problems
“Your financial success is directly related to the size of the problem you solve for other people (solve BIG problems and you’ll make BIG money).”
— Brian Tracy
Optimists come in two flavors: one who are delusional and think that their most pressing problems will disappear in the near future relieving them of their misery and suffering, and then those who are realists and know life will keep throwing problems at them, hence their main focus is always on practicing self-control, courage, and wisdom, and making progress and getting better each step of the way. I encourage you to be the latter — you must choose to be driven by logic, not emotions, and choose pragmatism over baseless fantasies and over-the-top emotions.
It’s best to always keep this truth in mind: Problems never truly go away; you only trade one set of problems for another.
Problems are a part and parcel of life and success. And it’s best to not get taken aback when new problems arise out of the blue when everything is going well and you least expect them.
Problems will keep coming at us and the wise thing to do is to train ourselves to expect and accept them in all stages of life. The silver lining is that great problems also come with great opportunities.
Hence, rather than running away from problems, why not reframe our minds and see them in a positive light? Newer, bigger problems mean you’ll be driven to do newer, bigger things. Isn’t that good?
The rewards of huge success only come to you when you equip yourself to solve huge problems. In other words, every level of success comes with its own corresponding level of problems. Therefore, our goal should not be to escape or eliminate problems, but rather get active and find new kinds of problems, the ones that are worth tackling.
This will not only help us grow personally and professionally and ensure greater success and prosperity for ourselves, but also position us to create a better world for our fellow humans. Now that’s a win-win!
HT to Seth Godin and Gabe.