I learned one of the secrets to a successful business, career and financial life when I was 5 years old and I never forgot it. As a kid, my friend’s mother used to make us homemade popsicles. Pour kool aid (very sugary drink) in an ice tray, put a popsicle stick in the liquid then freeze it to make a frozen popsicle. The trays she used had six spaces but there were only three kids so we often had extras. The extras created a huge problem, because they would attract ants when they would melt.
I went to my mother and expressed my frustration about the ant problem and she helped me learn something that changed me forever. She said; “Instead of getting mad at the ants, what can you do to fix the problem?” A couple of days later I came up with the idea to give the extras to other kids in the neighborhood in exchange for a nickel each (I later learned that this is called a sale). I eventually became one of the riches 5-year old’s in the neighborhood.
One of the secrets to a successful business, career and financial life is to “solve problems.” When you think about it, every business owner is in the business of selling solutions to their customer’s problems. In a career, an employer hires you because they need you to help solve a problem. Even if we don’t realize it, our financial life is deeply tied to our ability to solve problems. The better you and I get at solving problems, the better our lives will be.