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You have a problem?

Success needs no explanation and failure tolerates no excuse. Yet few people appreciate this point. Many people who fail, dole out excuses one after another, everyone and everything else is to blame except themselves. The situation is most pathetic, when owners, managers and leaders blame their own employees, team members and followers. Their opening statement is "The problem is ........", and this is followed by a long tirade or moan of nonsense. The first step in solving a 'problem' is, to learn what is the problem? Surprisingly most people have no idea what the problem is? A problem is defined as an obstruction 'C' which prevents you from going from  Situation 'A'  to situation 'B'. Unfortunately most people don't know where they are, where they want to get to and what is obstructing them. In that case the person does not have a problem, they just have an excuse for their failure.

If I want your opinion.

I t was the year of 1992 and I one of the proud owners of our family's rather large  manufacturing business. The head of engineering Mr. Pange and I had just reviewed his very attractive proposal to save our company a great deal of money and also improve quality significantly. I gazed at this soft spoken man with amazement and respect and asked Mr.Pange,   "we are lucky to have you on our team. I am sure  you must have saved your previous employer a lot of money and problems?"  He replied "Not a single rupee,Sir" "Why?" I asked incredulously. He said, "I presented my boss with an fantastic proposal which would have done wonders for the organisation, but he refused to even listen. It was the first and last time I made a suggestion until I joined you." His boss insultingly dismissed him saying, " If I want your opinion, I will give it to you. Now get back to work"

I have found the problem, it is I.

Blaming others is easy and allows us to deny the reality, that we may be the problem or the one causing the problem. We try to solve problems by changing partners, friends, and team members but rarely ourselves. A sure sign of a problematic person is one who sees negative things in everyone and everything all the time. Are you the problem  or the solution?