Bill Gates gave a speech at a High School about eleven things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair. Get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: They called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes; learn from them.

Rule 7:  Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades, and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

If you can read this . . . Thank a Teacher.
If you can read this in English . . . Thank a Soldier!
And for life and everything else you have . . . Thank God!

We all have problems. Some big and some small. And small ones can oftentimes grow into large ones if left unattended.

To some degree, our life and our business is about solving problems. A problem for one person is a business for someone else. We serve others by helping them solve problems.

So rather than look at problems as wrong, bad or something to be avoided, we should look at them as the opportunity they can be—for us or for others.

One of the best strategies I’ve encountered is to redefine the problem. Charles Kettering said, “A problem clearly stated is a problem half-solved.” The way we define the problem has a great deal to do with how we approach its solution. Many times a re-definition will work wonders on opening up the possibilities.

Take for example the problem of not having enough sales in a business. If current revenues are insufficient to handle all expenses and make a profit, one could hardly argue with the accuracy of the stated problem.

But what if we said, “We don’t have enough leads to generate sufficient sales.” Or, “Our customer acquisition costs are too high.” You could also say, “We’re not adequately communicating the value to our prospects” or “Our customers don’t come back for repeat sales.”

There are literally thousands upon thousands of ways to describe any problem. And the way it’s defined leads to significantly different ideas for solutions. The handful of re-statements above all have substantially different possibilities when it comes to generating solutions.

Write down your top problem as you see it. Then brainstorm with your coach or team to re-define it in a way that puts it into a new lens and re-focuses the solutions—of which there are many.

A fresh approach, a new perspective and more elegant solutions await you.

If you would like me to help you re-state and solve a problem, brainstorm an idea, gain clarity on an issue, get advice on a course of action or do a mini-business makeover, I would be happy to talk with you. Just go to this page for the details. It’s guaranteed to work.

And here’s a related article.
The Top Ten Ways to Solve Problems . . .

As human beings, we have a desire for stability and routine while at the same time we want excitement and surprise. We need both. Sometimes one more than the other but some kind of a balance, for sure.

We watch movies and sports for entertainment. If they were entirely predictable, we would be bored. And yet sporting events operate with certain rules. If the rules shifted and changed at random, I think we’d find it unsettling. The rules of the game create enough stability to be comfortable while still allowing for the unpredictability that makes things interesting.

Our customers want dependability from us. But at the same time, they like being delighted with something new and different. It’s why “new” and “improved” are hot-selling words. If we can consistently deliver what our customers want in an entertaining, fun and sometimes surprising way, the customer is happy.

Southwest Airlines pulls this off very well, in my opinion. Their values of “cheap, safe and fun” deliver a rewarding customer experience.

What about your service or product? How can you strike the balance of dependability and consistency with a new and different twist from time to time? How can you fulfill the human need of routine that’s not too boring and offer excitement that’s not too scary or unnerving?

If we’re always looking to improve our products and services, these are good questions to ask.

In our business, we’re committed to teaching and reminding our readers of age-old principles and fundamentals. The challenge is to present ancient information in new and different ways. It’s a matter of making things fresh by couching what we teach in ways that you can relate to.

The truth is, there’s nothing really new. There are no new atoms out there. But they can be assembled, constructed and presented in new and different ways.

That’s our challenge. And it’s also yours in serving your customers and stakeholders.

How can you repackage, re-invent, reposition, freshen or re-organize your wares in ways that add value to those you serve?

That’s what we’re up to and I challenge you to do the same. Not necessarily in a dramatic way—although that might sometimes be appropriate. But in a way that balances the human need for both newness and stability.