I have faced many situations where we put our smartest
people on the problem at hand. We discover all the reasons why this option or
that can’t work. Then we limit
ourselves, as good business people always do, to the small 5% space left of
options that might be feasible, affordable, politically acceptable, etc. I get that.
I do that every day. But, for
some issues, when everything around me says "No", I have witnessed the
brilliant light of unexpected discovery.
This either happens through accident, such as the discovery of
penicillin, or by involving others who didn’t know it wasn’t possible and who
weren’t burdened by the facts. These are
people who are able to look at 100% of the space since they don’t know they
can’t. I would encourage you to enlist
those right brained (rad) thinkers instead of always calling on your left
brained (logical) contemporaries. The
hope is that they throw enough mud at the wall that we find that unexpected
discovery overlooked by those who know it can’t be done. Sometimes it works incredibly well. Sometimes it confirms we just can’t get there
from here – yet. Naïve? Maybe.
But don’t tell that to the long list of successful entrepreneurs who
have made fortunes by doing just that.
Try it. You just might find that
elusive solution.
S. Scott Voynich, CPA, CGMA
Managing Partner
