What’s Your Problem?

Do you know what your biggest problem is?

If you can’t decide then these short videos might help.

Andy Black’s Video (2 mins)

Apologies for the hushed voice.  All the kids were in bed by the time I did the audio.  I’ll only ever record audio during the day going forward!

Daniel Black’s Version (age 5)

I showed Daniel the video above on my smartphone in the morning, and then showed him the Vittle app on my iPad in the afternoon.

When I suggested he create a little video, I was amazed when he churned this out.

I was so proud of him, it brought tears to my eyes!

Transcript (of my version!)

Hi, this is Andy Black

In this video you’re going to learn about your biggest problem, and how to overcome it.

Let’s consider two scenarios, Scenario A and Scenario B.

In scenario A, things get bigger over time. In scenario B, things get smaller over time.

The question is: which would you prefer?

It’s a trick question … because you don’t know what’s being measured over time.

If you’re measuring happiness, you want scenario A, where you get more happy over time.

If you’re measuring stress levels, then you want scenario B, where you get less stressed over time.

If you’re measuring profits, you likely want scenario A.

And if you’re measuring costs, you might want scenario B.

But what if you were measuring the size of problems?  Would you want your problems to get bigger over time?  Or would you want your problems to get smaller over time?

If you were faced with smaller problems at the start, then you and your competitors would get over them, and you wouldn’t have an edge.

If you were faced with bigger problems at the start, then you’re more likely to get ahead of your competitors, and be faced with less competition later on.

So the bigger the problem, the bigger the barrier to entry and the less competition on the “other side”.

If you knew all the problems that stood between you and the results you wanted, you could look at it as a series of hurdles in your way … each hurdle being a problem that you need to overcome.

Or you could look at it as a series of stepping stones … that take you from where you are, to where you want to be.

If you’re looking at problems as barriers between you and where you want to be, then that is your biggest problem.

Instead, if you saw problems as the barriers to entry that are there to reduce your competition, and if you saw problems as stepping stones to your success rather than hurdles, then you would no longer have any problems.

You would have opportunities to get closer to your goals, and further ahead of the competition.

Seeing problems as opportunities, and being able to welcome them, is the biggest competitive advantage there is.