What are some of the problems you’ve been ignoring? – AUDIO NSFW
What’s up, guys? I hope you guys are having a wonderful day today. I want to talk to you guys today about a consultant’s best asset. Now, many of you may remember or may know that I spent 12 years as a software consultant traveling the world, training people in Agile software development Scrum, Methodology Scrum framework, wrote a couple books on this, and travelled internationally, spoke all over the world—some of my greatest memories.
So my greatest memories were of my consulting life and the people that I’ve met. Some people have become great friends of mine and they’re all the way across the world because of this consulting lifestyle that I had for 12 years. I put an average of a hundred and sixty-five thousand miles in the Delta seats every year guaranteeing me Diamond status.
Now, I was a Delta member since 1997, guys. And so I have seen the rewards program—the SkyMiles program, partner programs change and evolve so many times that it is no longer possible to really get the highest perks of diamond unless you’re just spending a ton of money or you really are travelling full-time but anyway, that’s neither here nor there.
What I wanted to talk to you guys about today is the consultant’s best asset. Where this came about was an idea stream that I had and what I was thinking about initially was this idea of what makes projects fun for me, what makes a project fun for me. Now, for anyone else there’s a multiplicity of reasons why a new project, a new initiative, a new thing that you’re doing in life and pretty much everything you do in life is a project, nothing’s forever, right?
CONSULTANT’S OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD
But for you, it might be a whole slew of different reasons that things excite you, but I know for me, what excites me the most about any type of project in life whether it’s business, professional, or personal, it’s always been solving problems and that my friends is the consultant’s best asset.
A consultant’s best asset is an innate deep desire genetically coded into their system. A genetic desire–some would call disorder, maybe we’re going to talk about that in a second but a genetic desire to solve problems. That really is in my opinion being a consultant for 12 years, the consultant’s best asset. Now, they love solving problems and that they have the ability to find the problem in any situation.
Now, this as you can clearly see is a double-edged sword, right? Innately, you might by design love solving problems but what comes with that is you, therefore, have the ability to often find the problem in any situation. And this is 100% true.
For me, even in my earliest memories of being a consultant, not just a professional consultant, but being a consultant in life, I remember some of my earliest consultative moments or consulting moments in life that were in middle school.
That’s when I began to see patterns in the world. That’s when I began to see problems with the system, that’s when I began to see breakdowns and the social structures between the Goths, and the punk rockers, and the hoods, and the rappers, and the gangsters, the OGs, and the people who like Hootie & the Blowfish versus people who like Green Day.
The ‘80s and ‘90s are great years to me. But you see? This is also the problem, this is the occupational disease of a consultant is that they have the ability to find the problem in any situation because they are innately attuned defining problems.
Now, as you could probably imagine, this is more than just a professional issue, this is a personal issue, right? Don’t you know that guy, don’t you know that gal that whenever you hang out with them, they’re always pointing out problems, right? And they’re always looking at the negative side of things, and you say, “Well, Peter, I didn’t have that in my mind.” Oh, you must be thinking of what’s worse than that. You know what’s worse than the person that’s looking at it and picking at everybody’s problems? The person that looks and sees everyone’s problems and they try to help.
That’s me guys, I’m that annoying friend. I’m the one where I have literally had people tell me,“Peter, like I like you in this setting I just can’t do you in this setting.” And I’ve had people tell me,“Peter, you’re better on online.” I’ve had people say,“Peter,I can only take so much of this.” I’ve literally heard someone say—it was within this year—to my face, “Peter, this is why I can only take like an hour of you.” That’s me, that’s my flaw. That’s the consultant’s occupational hazard.
And I don’t know if any of you guys out there are consultants or have lived with consultants or know consultants or true consultants, then you know that true consultants are people who love solving problems. But the fatal flaw in that is that they love solving problems because they’re really good at seeing problems in every situation.
You see? To be a consultant, you must detest problems but at the same time you enjoy problem solving and if you’re a great consultant, exceptional consultant, then you enjoy the process and the people along the way as you’re helping them solve problems in business or in life.
Now, I have had the privilege over many, many years, many, many different projects of life to constantly be in a position of solving problems. That really is what makes projects fun for me. But this occupational hazard—the consultant’s best asset of being able to find problems in every situation is also the consultant’s occupational disease and if you can’t live with problems that you find all the time, then consulting will kill you.
Living a life of trying to be a good human being and helping other people while also trying to make an income as a consultant. If you cannot live with problems, consulting will kill you because consulting is the endless wheel of revealing problems around you all the time.
And so should a consultant give up solving problems? No. a great consultant is a consultant who wants to last, a consultant who wants to survive, and continue to be a good or excellent consultant, someone who solves problems.
It’s not that you give up on your problems. No, no, no, no, no. You just need to give up the illusion that you’ll ever finish solving problems. Because once you complete a problem, once you finish a problem, isn’t there just another one right behind it? Is this not the madness of life, my friends? Is this not what you have in your short life or even long life depending on who you are listening to this? Is this not part of the cycle of decay, part of the cycle of life that is inevitable? Is that once you complete a problem or solve a problem or complete something, a second problem gets promoted to the first priority problem.
There’s always a problem. There’s always something to be fixed. I truly believe that if you love solving problems, you will live a great life. You’ll live an excellent life. You’ll live an excellent life. As Gerry Weinberg would say, “You’d live a good life, but if you can learn to ignore some problems when you choose to, then you can live your best life.” And that is something that I am constantly relearning—is that I don’t need to address every problem in the room.
I don’t need to go after every problem that I see. Problem-solving for me is exceptionally fun. It’s invigorating. It’s exciting. It brings me alive because I know that on the other side of solving that problem there is a reward. Often, that reward is internal. “Yeah, I did it. Congratulations. Pat on the back. You did it, man.” When was the last time any of you heard me asking for praise? I just don’t.
And for me as an introvert naturally, for me, the goal, the outcome of every endeavor that I endeavor on is internal reward. The feeling of satisfaction that I completed something. I proved myself worthy of the task. Sometimes even I proved others wrong who said that I couldn’t do it.
But solving problems is a great life to have. And as I was thinking about this is—and this is how I wanna end this guys for you because many of you guys are like, “This didn’t mean anything to me. I’m not a consultant and I don’t love solving problems and certainly, I don’t get paid to solve problems.” Well actually… You are.
You might not be paid to solve problems but your entire life is a journey of solving life’s biggest constraints, life’s biggest conundrums, life’s biggest questions, life’s biggest unknowns, life’s biggest issues and problems. That’s what life is. Life is smashing yourself up against the unknown every day even if you have a job that is so governmental in nature that you could literally sleep through your job because nothing ever changes there. But regardless of the employment that you are engaged in on the daily, you are everyday, relatively, smashing up against the unknown.
You don’t know what’s gonna happen today. You certainly don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow. There are things that maybe you’ve ignored for too long, maybe you’re too good of a consultant and life’s too good because you’re good at ignoring those things that you shouldn’t ignore.
I’m telling you I loved being a consultant. I still am a consultant in my heart. I still solve problems. Moving from a 12-year career as an IT software development consultant moving into the cryptocurrency game full-time where I am now is I’m still a consultant. I’m still solving epic problems. I’m creating software to solve problems that I believe that people need to have solutions for. And that brings me alive.
Not all of you are there but I will share this with you that as much as I love solving problems and this has made me a perfect candidate for a life of consulting, I’ll tell you that solving problems in your own life can be just as invigorating because I tell you, as much as I enjoyed solving my clients problems, you know what was the harder and more worthy task? It was solving my own problems. Improving my own life.
Looking at what is around me and not being satisfied. Thank the Lord for men and women who look around them and have never been satisfied. They are the reason we have all of the luxuries and all the great tech today. Because some men and some women are willing to look at the problems and say, “Man, I could do that better.”
The challenge for you guys today is to consider what are some of the problems you’ve been ignoring? Become a consultant today. Take one step forward in solving that life problem, that life issue, that life improvement project, a career project. I don’t know what it is for you. Take that step today. Let me know in the comments, subscribe, and you know what? Why don’t you share this with just one person today that you think might need it? Peace.