Big Problems, Simple Solutions

In a city, two sweetshop owners were located across from each other. One shopkeeper, to increase his business, wrote on a board outside his shop: Everyone in this city eats my sweets. Gradually, his business started to grow. Worried, the second shopkeeper wrote on his board: Everyone in this state eats my sweets. Upon seeing this, the first shopkeeper raises the stakes, writing: Everyone in the world eats my sweets. The second shopkeeper, perplexed, wrote something new on his new board. This led his business to start growing exponentially. He had written: The other sweetshop owner eats my sweets. He had found such a simple and effective solution to his problem. This is a critical insight, especially for entrepreneurs.

Here is a real-life story for you. An industry owner was frustrated because his workers were underperforming despite having two shifts. They were slacking, knowing that the owner couldn’t replace them. One day, the owner shared his concerns with his son, a smart and common-sense thinker. The son, who was in 12th standard, visited the factory and asked for a chalk. He wrote “76” on the floor. The workers in the second shift saw this number but didn’t understand its significance. However, the supervisor soon realized that the “76” represented the number of jobs the previous shift did, and his ego got hurt. He told his workers to complete 90 jobs in that shift. The next day, the first shift saw the “90” written on the floor and became motivated to outdo the second shift. Eventually, the factory started producing 305 jobs per shift, simply through healthy competition inspired by a simple solution.

What did we learn from these examples? No matter how big a problem is, the simplest solution is often the most effective. Instead of trying to find solutions in haste after facing problems, if we sit quietly for 10-15 minutes and then start asking questions to our common sense, then our common sense does give us simple answers back!

Whenever you are faced with a big problem and have, say, 3 possible solutions, just choose the simplest solution; you will soon observe that it is also the most effective solution to your problem!