“If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution.” – Steve Jobs

A Solution in Need’s Clothing

A useful sidekick to have when the “I really need/want …” wave hits is a three year old: no selfconsciousness yet and unabated curiosity. The cheeky three year old will counter any answer you give her with “Why?”.

Counter that “I need/want…” statement with a “Why?”, rinse and repeat; in the end almost always the big reveal is that the need is simply a solution to a hidden problem.

Let’s call that three year old Kay.

Me: “I want to write a blog.”

Kay: “Why?”

Me: “Because I want to become a writer and I need practice.”

Kay: “Why do you want to become a writer?”

Me: “Well, because I have thoughts and ideas to tell.”

Kay: “Why do you want to tell them?”

Me: “If I don’t put them out, they’ll be forgotten. That scares me.”

Kay: “Why?”

Me: “Well, my fear is I will not have time to exchange them with my children. If I die young, like my mother, they will not know me. I wish my mother had left me her thoughts.”

That’s it. The need is to leave my children something of me. The solution is to write. Starting a blog was never really a need or want, it was a solution.

The key lesson here is to make sure that the solution is the most fitting one to the actual need.