Nobody said building a company was going to be easy.

But it IS easy to…

• Feel a bit powerless sometimes.
• Get overwhelmed by the never-ending onslaught of business challenges you have to face.
• Wish that building your company didn’t have to always be so damn difficult.
• Assume that you don’t have any control over, well…anything.
• Hope that your problems will just go away, at least for a little while, so that you can catch your breath and regroup.

We’ve all been there at one time or another.

But what if all those “problems” aren’t the real problem? What if the real cause of all that drama is your innate resistance to the idea of “problems”?

Here’s a quick quote from Steve Chandler (Reinventing Yourself):

“Owners see problems as bodybuilders see weight: more resistance to build a life with. It’s resistance training, and it feels good. Victims, on the other hand, don’t want to lift that weight. They look at weights with horror, and they look at problems as betrayals.”

Betrayals! Think about that for a minute.

When you commit to building something great, you’re also volunteering to face all the obstacles, challenges, and setbacks that will inevitably be standing in your way.

And yet…

Did you truly embrace the idea of a life filled with problems?

Did you actually take the time to practice “problem solving” like you would practice playing a sport or musical instrument?

Did you start putting in the daily reps so that you could more easily build up to solving those really big, hairy, complex problems?

Did you make it a priority to level-up your creative problem-solving and critical thinking skills?

Or did you just hope that building your company wouldn’t be as difficult as you imagined? That you’d be able to just figure it out as you go? That your existing skillset would be enough to get you through?

When we realize that there’s no straight and easy path to our vision, it’s tempting to “look at problems as betrayals.” What is it exactly that we feel is being betrayed?

Our fantasy that we’re the exception to the rule. That our path to success won’t be just as messy as everyone else’s.

What will you do today to change your relationship with the obstacles in your path?

Will you treat problem solving like any other critical skill, and put in the daily work needed to master it?