Why Do We Have to Wait?
Edwin Land was on vacation with his family in the late 1940s. He took a lot of photographs to record their adventures. His young children were excited and wanted to see them. He reassured them that they’ll be able to see the photographs within a week. Today we can take digital pictures and share them immediately. Not so in the middle of the twentieth century. Exposed photographic film had to be developed in darkrooms, which took about a week to do. One of Land’s children asked: “Why do we have to wait a week, Dad?”
We could dismiss such childish questions or we could pay attention to them. Edwin Land was an entrepreneur and had learned to be curious about ordinary questions. He took his child’s question seriously. That question led him to develop the Polaroid Land Camera, which developed photographs in sixty seconds.
Entrepreneurs see life differently than the rest of us.
Many of us see problems and wish they’d go away; entrepreneurs see problems and turn them into opportunities. In fact, success in any entrepreneurial business depends on identifying people’s unmet needs (problems) and finding ways to help them meet those needs. Entrepreneurs predict these unmet needs to make people’s lives better.
Entrepreneurs ask ‘opportunity questions’ such as: “How might I…?” ‘Opportunity questions stimulate the creative process. A great exercise we can do is notice problems, complaints, or frustrations in people’s lives and record them in a book. Doing this will give us ideas for starting a business to create products or services that help meet people’s needs.
We can apply the entrepreneurial mindset to our own climbing and lives.
We can notice unmet needs that cause problems, cause us to complain, or to get frustrated. We can begin seeing the types of things that bother us and how we might change our perspective.
Let’s say we have a problem of continually falling off the crux on our project route. We get frustrated and complain about our level of strength, the conditions, or ineffective training. The entrepreneurial mindset shifts our attention from problem to opportunity. It allows us to ask an opportunity question: “How might I complete the crux and not fall off?” Immediately, complaining and frustration disappear. This shifts our attention, allowing us to become curious, which automatically helps us think of options:
- I may need to do different physical training that targets this specific crux.
- I may need to stay longer at rest stances to recover energy.
- I may need to move more quickly to conserve energy.
- I may need to practice falling to diminish that fear.
- I may need to change the sequence I’m using for the crux.
None of these options may solve the problem. However, we’ll make quicker progress toward the solution with the entrepreneurial mindset. Finding the solution may require working through all the options we’ve listed and additional options we’ll discover until we find it. A big benefit, though, is we engage the whole process with curiosity, which not only solves the problem quicker, but we also have more fun doing it.
Changing our perspective about our unmet needs changes our lives. Entrepreneurs turn complaints into compliments, frustrations into curiosities, and problems into opportunities. The entrepreneurial mindset makes our lives better. We may not develop the next technological gadget, but we’ll be more engaged and enjoy the problems we solve to get our unmet needs met.
Practice tip: “How might I…?”
You’ll always have problems in your life. So, you might as well change how you think about them. Don’t focus on getting rid of problems; actively seek them out. Look for the opportunities hiding within those problems.
Ask an ‘opportunity question’ once you’ve found a problem:
- “How might I solve this problem?”
Then, list as many options as you can and investigate each option. You’ll find the solution with enough investigation and have fun doing it.
This Post Has 4 Comments
Hey Warriors, I’d love suggestions / feedback on a new mental “crux” recently discovered. I climb best when it is just me and a belayer/partner. Often though, I’m in social situations where there are lots of other people at the crag, yelling, commenting “you got this” etc. It drives me crazy. At first I thought, well, I guess I just need to be more selective when and where I climb but I’ve discarded that idea and now think that I need to view my social distraction as another challenge rather than a requirement for good climbing. Basically, I need to learn how to either ignore the chatter below that or at least make it neutral in my head. I have some ideas myself and I’d love to hear others’ suggestions! Thanks
Max
Hi Max. That’s an important realization, that the “you’ve got it” chatter is an opportunity for your growth. I’d suggest not ignoring the chatter nor making it neutral in your head. Rather, practice a helpful warrior skill of noticing it, accept it as a natural part of the environment you’re currently in, and simply redirect your attention to the chosen task, whether to stop, rest and think or climb. As you get better at redirecting, you’ll hear less and less of the chatter. a
Lots of resonance with this material. I have progressive neuropathy and my ability to climb, among many other things, is severely impaired. When the neuropathy first started impeding me from accomplishing my goals in 2018 I despaired. This year, as the progression has kept me from climbing entirely, I’ve been asking myself, “What are you still able to do and how can you do it to the fullest extent of your ability?” I’ve given myself an abundance of opportunity this way, and also feel profoundly empowered and at peace. The entrepreneur mindset enables this thinking. Thanks for the lesson!
That’s such an important shift you’ve made Amy, to focus on what you’re still able to do given your progressive neuropathy situation. I’m sure it’s very difficult to accept and work with it, but you’ve made a powerful choice, and that’s led to more peace and power for you. Best to you on your journey.