How to Coach Yourself and Others Techniques For Coaching | Page 178

Turn a Problem into a New Career Opportunity
If your problem is one you think others may share, you can think about
solving it for everyone, and it could turn into a huge opportunity. That
is how many entrepreneurs get started. Scott Cook was frustrated with
the poor quality of software designed to help him balance his
checkbook. He decided to start a software company to fix the problem.
His company Intuit is now a multi-billion-dollar success story.
Sometimes the Opportunity is Surrender
The opportunity a problem can bring is surrendering to the inevitable. I
did the Get-it-Done Guy episode on not giving up your dreams because
I’d been bitten by the musical theater bug but never had the courage to
follow it. I visited New York, met several actors, producers, and
directors, and realized the competition would be brutal. The dancing
alone would be a challenge (ask me to tell you the story about the bone
saw someday when we have more time).
Dancing, a challenge? I love a challenge! I hired an acting coach to help
me prepare audition monologues. At our first meeting, she explained
that pretty much no one, no matter how talented, actually makes a
living at acting, so I should get that notion out of my head immediately.
FREEDOM! Once I discarded the idea that this had to be a career, the
possibilities for musical theater as a hobby opened up. Stay tuned for
the Get-it-Done Guy one-man musical. And no, I’m not joking.
Sometimes surrendering to the inevitable leads to the very thing you
thought was impossible.
Now it’s time for me to turn a problem into an opportunity. The
problem: I’m staring at a picture of Bernice and Melvin in wet, clinging
clothes, at a water park. There must be an opportunity here.
Somewhere.
Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!

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