In life there are many obstacles that you will come across, some are bigger mountains than others, but they are all obstacles.  When you run across those obstacles, you have a choice of deciding what you are going to do with it.  To lay down and quit, or to find a way to go up, over, down or around that obstacle.  Climbing up it can mean putting stairs in it, so that you have a sure foothold.  What would the the staircase look like?

Opéra Garnier, Paris France

Well it can take many forms, consider if you want to go to a world renowned school.  One of those that everyone is trying to get into.  One that only the elite of the elite are even given an opportunity to go to.  That’s part of the obstacle, the opportunity is that you can do things like; take lessons, get sponsors, find mentors etc..  Those things that you do to get over the obstacles are the stairs.  You have the chose of walking away or doing what you need to do to get to that opportunity that you’ve dreaming of.

The same is true when you start a business there are countless obstacles that you will come across.  it is your choice if you’re going to find a way to go over, under, around or through those obstacles.

If you don’t see things as opportunities, they you really need to stop and consider if starting a business is the right thing for  you.  If you’re one that throws the towel in when the smallest of things happens?  If so you probably shouldn’t consider going into business for yourself.  Above is a picture of Googles emblem.  Do you think that those that started google never had any issues?  Of course they did.  Every company has issues.  Those don’t stop when the company is large like Google, FedEx or Microsoft.  In fact the challenges increase.

Challenges

Challenges are simply those things that you don’t know how to handle yet!  Yet is in fact the keyword here.  Because a challenge is simply something that you don’t know how to handle yet, but a challenge is something that you can overcome.

How?  The first thing you need to do is brainstorm!  What brainstorming does is to allow for you to look at all of your options.  Brainstorming can include talking to people, doing online research, sitting and think or any number of things that will bring ideas to the forefront.  Sometimes they easy to over come while other times, they’re not.  Every obstacle is different.  The key is to bring ideas to for the obstacle to the surface.   Then you can know ways to overcome those obstacles.

What that does is change that obstacle into an opportunity to make something great happen.  It’s not hard, but it is doable.  That doesn’t mean that your solution is going to be easy, the two should not be confused.  For example: your business may need more money.  That’s a simple problem and the solution in a startup is to go to VC’s (venture capitalist).  Doable right.  Just go in front of people and tell them you need money.  But easy, well that’s another story.

Going in front of a V.C. means that you’re going to need to have a business plan.  Those can be 100’s of pages and take as many hours to get the business plan done in a professional way.  It also means that you’re going to have to find those that are interested in what you’re looking to get investors for and then it means being able to get in front of them in a timely manner so that you can keep your business running and not close the doors before the investment.

Opportunity!

The opportunity for you in this case is to move your business to the next level.  It’s about making your dream come true, and allowing for others to come to you for their dreams.  Each obstacle is an opportunity for you to be able to do more than you’ve ever dream.  It’s a chance for you to be all that you can be, but more importantly for you to move beyond where you once thought that you weren’t able to go to.

Objective

One of the hardest things for a business person (or anyone for that matter) to be is object with their project.  You see if you’re to close to your project, it’s your baby.  You want to make it work at all cost.  There’s television shows that are built on people with their pet projects and they’re trying to get investors in order to make their project all that they think it should be.  But the reality is that some things shouldn’t move beyond the initial stages.  Why?  Because they aren’t something that anyone really needs to have or invest in.

The hard part is knowing if it’s something that needs to be developed further, or if it’s something that should be let go.  We’ve all see that ‘thing’ that we didn’t think was going to make it, but yet it does.  For me Chia Pets was one of those things that I thought was well not great.  But in 1977 someone decided it was a great thing and they’re still going strong.  Not only that, but I’ve never met someone that didn’t have at least one.   Your baby may be like a Chia Pet, no one but you may think it’s great, and the next thing you know it’s taken off and everyone else loves it.  That’s what makes asking friends and family a challenge.  Sometimes they only see the obstacles and not the opportunity or possibility.  It’s at this point that you may need to make some hard choices with family and friends.  If they aren’t going to support you, they may need to go.  That’s a hard thing to think about, but it’s no less a face.

So now it’s time for you to sit down and think about what you’re going to do and how you’re going to look at things.  Are they going to be opportunities or obstacles.  The choice is yours!