PROBLEMS, FACILITATORS OF PROGRESS

WISDOM NUGGET: "And once the storm is over, you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about."
                                                                                                       - Haruki Murakami

Problems are like pregnant women. They usually come pregnant with "progress babies" inside of them. Please understand that most problems are a good sign. Problems actually indicate that progress is being made, that wheels are turning and that you are moving toward your goals. Beware when you have no problems; because then you really have a problem. Take it or leave it, problems are like landmarks of progress.

Nelson Mandela is perhaps one of the most influential men of all time. But you would recall that he did not necessarily set out to become that. He just wanted to solve the problem of Apartheid. He was so consumed with his drive for finding a solution to that problem that when the problem began to swallow all he had, he most likely didn't realize it. That drive made him daring and astonishingly brave. In Soweto, when the kingdom fell in darkness and shadows ruled the night; with no sign of dawn, he soldiered on and in the long run brought the black race in South Africa back to the dawn of a new life founded in freedom. Had the brutal Apartheid regime known they would never have incarcerated him as they did. If only they knew that 27years in Roben Island will make that man  "The Number One Citizen of The World" today, they would quietly have left him alone. Today, one man's die hard decision to solve a national problem has led to "The Making of a Hero" and has put the nation of South Africa in an enviable place in the map of the world, producing the strongest economy in Africa, hosting the World Cup and becoming Africa's number one tourist destination.

If you read further our key scripture, you will notice that Paul implied that the troubles that some folks cooked up, which should have caused him more trouble in prison, brought about an explosive fast tracking of the accomplishment of the very reason why he was apprehended in the first place. Can I challenge you today to focus 90% of your time on solutions and 10% on problems and see the great world of difference it will make? It was Haruki Murakami who said, "And once the storm is over, you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about."

PROBLEMS, CATALYSTS OF INVENTIONS

WISDOM NUGGET: "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all".

Imagine a world where there are no problems; in that kind of world, I can assure you that the word INVENTION will never exist there. All through the pages of history, we are inundated with the gallant strides of great inventors, whose inventions have made our world aglow.

 Truth be told however, in the absence of the problems that arose against humanity from time to time, the names of those inventors would never have been known. Amazingly, lots of those problems existed for so long until someone was daring enough to confront them. Those confrontations birthed great solutions, which we today refer to as inventions.

It was 1818 in France, and Louis, a boy of 9, was sitting in his father's workshop. The father was a harness-maker and the boy loved to watch his father work the leather. "Someday Father," said Louis, "I want to be a harness-maker, just like you." "Why not start now?" said the father. He took a piece of leather and drew a design on it. "Now, my son," he said, "take the hole- puncher and a hammer and follow this design, but be careful that you don't hit your hand." Excited, the boy began to work, but when he hit the hole-puncher; it flew out of his hand and pierced his eye! He lost the sight of that eye immediately. Later, sight in the other eye failed. Louis was now totally blind. A few years later, Louis was sitting in the family garden when a friend handed him a pine cone. As he ran his sensitive fingers over the cone, an idea came to him. He became enthusiastic and began to create an alphabet of raised dots on paper so that the blind could feel and interpret what was written. Thus, Louis Braille opened up a whole new world for the blind, all because of an accident!

In our key scripture above, Paul, the man who made the statement above was actually in chains, yet he calls it "light affliction". But more interestingly, he said, it is working an ETERNAL and far GREATER WEIGHT OF GLORY.

That is why the names of these great inventors will eternally be remembered, because of the problems they solved for humanity. It is popularly said that necessity is the mother of all inventions. Anthony Robbins couldn't have put it in a better light when he said, "Every problem is a gift - without problems we would not grow."

Perhaps, There's A Message In Your Mess

Wisdom Nugget:"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

                                                                                                                                - Albert Einstein.

                                                                                                                         

Joseph Addison had this to say, that “our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments (problems); but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures”

Someone said, "Chance favours the prepared mind." That's the genius behind all great inventions. The following “accidental” inventions by some scientists weren’t prepared for. These scientists did their science on the brink and were able to see the magic in a mistake, set-back, or coincidence.

Alexander Fleming, the accidental inventor of Penicillin - which today is one of the most famous and fortunate accidents of the 20th century arrived at this invention albeit mistakenly. Here’s how it happened, he went on vacation one day in 1928, but didn't clean up his workstation before he did. When he returned, Fleming noticed a strange fungus on some of his cultures; even stranger was that bacteria didn't seem to thrive near those cultures - he’d created “Penicillin”

Penicillin became the first, and still is one of the most widely used antibiotics today.

William Perkin wanted to cure malaria; but instead his scientific endeavors changed the face of fashion forever and, helped fight cancer. Here's how, in 1856 Perkin was trying to come up with artificial quinine. Instead of a malaria treatment, his experiments produced a thick murky mess. But the more he looked at it, the more Perkin saw a beautiful color in his mess. He unwittingly made the first-ever synthetic dye. Which was far better than any dye that came from nature; the color was brighter, more vibrant, and didn't fade or wash out. His discovery also turned chemistry into a money-generating science - making it attractive for a whole generation of curious-minded people. One of the people inspired by Perkin's work was German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich, who used Perkin's dyes to pioneer immunology and chemotherapy.

Here’s one more message in a mess discovery. In 1907 shellac was used as insulation in electronics. It was costing the industry a pretty penny to import shellac, which was made from Southeast Asian beetles, and at home chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland thought he might turn a profit if he could produce a shellac alternative. Instead his experiments yielded a mouldable material that could take high temperatures without distorting. Baekeland thought his "Bakelite" might be used for phonograph records, but it was soon clear that the product had thousands of uses. Today plastic, which was derived from Bakelite, is used for everything from telephones to iconic movie punch lines.

Problems are often minefields for greatness, if we are patient enough to pause for a second and wade through the thick, murky, annoying and unpalatable situations called problems life throws at us – it turns out that most disappointments are blessings in disguise after all.

BEHIND EVERY PROBLEM IS AN OILFIELD

Wisdom Nugget: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

One of the most scary things in life is "closed doors" because you don't know what lies behind them. We are all scared to leave the known for the unknown and the familiar for the unfamiliar. When life suddenly hits you with a closed door (a loss of job, a failed marriage, a visa denial, a business collapse etc) the fear of "so what happens to me now ?" often leave us with that gnawing sense of hopelessness and a paralyzing helplessness.

Dr. Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ tells this story of a famous oil field called Yates Pool: During the depression this field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates wasn’t able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on government subsidy.

Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract. At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day. And Mr Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he’d been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty.

This is the sad paradox of most people. Treasures are hidden in trash, destinies in destitutes, messages in a mess, gain in pain and miracles in mistakes.

THE GIFT OF PROBLEMS: IT’S COMMON

Wisdom Nuggets: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man...’’

Luck Is For Heaven

The first law of PROBLEMS is this: “They are common’’ or not ‘’ beyond the course of what others have had to face’’. Once you settle that within you then there is nothing to be ashamed of. Never be ashamed to admit it and to say ‘’I was wrong’’ when you make  a mistake or encounter a problem.
In Charles Colson's book Born Again, which details his experiences related to Watergate, Colson shares one of President Nixon's problems - he could never admit he was wrong in anything. In fact, Colson says, even when Nixon obviously had a cold - nose running, face red, sneezing, all the symptoms - he would never admit it.

When New York's Citicorp tower was completed in 1977, it was the seventh tallest building in the world. Many structural engineers hailed the tower for its technical elegance and singular grace. The tower was notable for its sleek aluminum sides and provocative slash-topped design. The structural engineer who designed the steel superstructure was William J. LeMessurier, who not long after the building was completed, was elected into the National Academy of Engineering, which is the highest honor his profession bestows.
But one year after the building opened, LeMessurier came to a frightening realization. The Citicorp tower was flawed. Without LeMessurier's approval, during construction the joints in the steel superstructure had been bolted, which is a common and acceptable practice, but does not make for as strong a joint as welding does. Also, he had not taken into account the extra force of a non-perpendicular wind.

He talked with meteorologists and found that a wind strong enough to buckle that crucial joint came every sixteen years in New York. So he did what he had to do. He informed all concerned. City and corporate leaders faced the problem in a professional manner, and plans were drawn to strengthen the joints by welding steel plates to them. Contingency plans were made to ensure people's safety during the work, and the welding began in August of 1978.
After the work was completed three months later, the building was strong enough to withstand a storm of the severity that hits New York only once every seven hundred years. In fact it was now one of the safest structures ever built.
LeMessurier's career and reputation were not destroyed but enhanced. One engineer commended LeMessurier for being a man who had the courage to say, "I got a problem; I made the problem; let's fix the problem." - Craig Brian Larson. Remember, whatever is the problem, you are not alone. It is COMMON.