Marry The Problem, Not The Solution

In most circumstances, it’s not a great idea to boast about being a quitter.

For someone who gets easily excited about the potential of new ideas, it can be a struggle to reach a point where the idea you once thought was destined for fruition hits a wall.

A few months back, I had decided to step away from a non-profit I had been running for two years. The decision was partly personal — I was working around the clock, sleeping less, and swamped by questions about the future of the organization during every morning shower. The day-to-day tasks were used more to keep the organization alive rather than bring the organization to new horizons. The workshops that had once energized the DC community, were starting to resemble the product of a sleep-deprived and existentially chaotic founder.

For two years, I had been in an experimental phase with these digital literacy workshops. My focus was on iteration, driven by a quote I had heard from a mentor: “Marry the problem, not the solution.”

What I realized, however, was that I had taken this quote to mean that a problem within my product would be fixed by changing the product. A problem within my organization would be fixed by a new management perspective.

I never once considered that the problem I was trying to solve needed a new non-profit organization to solve it in the first place.

I realized that I had fallen in love with the idea of creating an organization. Fallen in love with seeing that organization come to life. My devotion to the cause was hitched with my devotion to creating an organization that served the cause — blindly focused on a product-driven solution as opposed to other methods of solving that same problem.

When we consider the problems we care about the most, we are tantalized by the potential of creating an entrepreneurial entity to address it. With entrepreneurship comes excitement, freedom, and control. It’s enticing.

Yet, in the rush of using an entrepreneurial tool to fix a problem, we forget about the many methods already at our disposal — reading about issues, volunteering, signing up to work on advocacy campaigns, and joining twitter chats. We shelf those in our path for entrepreneurial glory; indeed, there are many times it is justified. But what of the organizations that are building hammers where there is no nail?

I met an individual this past summer at a Startup Grind event who gave me some interesting advice: “Remember that your organization is only one way your problem will be solved. Do enough work so that you can close a struggling organization tomorrow and still have enough fuel to solve your problem.”

Two months after I stepped away from my organization, I went to a conference in Minnesota called “Net Inclusion”, focused on the digital divide. I had gone last year and proudly represented my organization. This year, I was hesitant to again. I didn’t want to have to explain to hundreds of people I had seen the year before that I had taken the exit ramp on being an entrepreneur.

But then I realized something — the lack of having a hat on made my responsibility at that conference very simple. I wasn’t looking at the topics from the lens of my organization but simply learning to understand the problem. It ended up being an amazing decision. While I don’t know if the digital divide will be my life’s passion in one year or even ten years, the conference was a therapeutic adjustment from organizational development.

I even find this saying to be helpful when approaching my work at IBM.

One of the clients I meet with regularly identifies problems with our system users where he prefers a system solution. Roughly 50% of these problems don’t get resolved with a system solution.

Why?

They didn’t need a system solution at all.

They were problems that would be resolved via email or a little extra communication. When we looked at the problems deeply, we were slowly able to remove our reliance on the one solution available.

The goal of this piece isn’t meant to deter anyone from pursuing entrepreneurship. I have many friends who are attacking their problems with comprehensive and applicable solutions. Even I would consider starting another organization if the timing and idea were right.

The goal is simply to think deeply about a problem you want to solve without getting bogged down in one solution. Ask the the real questions: Is there already an existing organization I can partner with? Is a new organization the only way I can get my feet wet? Do I have the energy for it? Am I keeping an idea alive for myself or is the survival of it essential to the problem?

It’s okay to get tantalized by the sparkle of a high-octane solution — just don’t let the sparkle blind you.