You don't need an idea to start a business

Entrepreneurship Means Falling in Love with Problems

by Francisco Santolo

I used to work at a company where the building had a special door. This door, which separated the two main offices, had to be opened with a button that generated a slight electric shock, perhaps due to it being in contact with the carpet.

Entrepreneurship Means Falling in Love with Problems

Employees would need to pass through the door at least 10 times a day to access other areas.  There was also an alternative path, surrounding the space through the kitchen.  But this path was too long and people were anxious, wanting to get to the other side quickly.

For more than a year, we faced the dilemma of pressing that button or taking the alternative path.  My body had already developed some resistance to this unpleasant sensation, but many times I would breathe, press the button and suffer the shock. This would happen over and over again.

At that moment, focusing on the goals was the most "important" thing, getting to work quickly, achieving the objectives, being promoted, getting a good performance evaluation with everything that would come from it.  We made some occasional comments and we laughed about it. We did complain but it was almost always to the wrong people, and when the responsible area did not solve the matter, eventually it was forgotten due to the lack of proactivity of hundreds of employees.  The issue was never solved and years later the offices moved to another place. This story is 100% true.

Today, after almost four years of living as an entrepreneur and a digital nomad, I look back and feel happy to see how easy and exciting it is to find problems that need solving. Nurturing an entrepreneurial spirit made me able to fall in love with the difficulties, the problems, understanding my purpose, learning to prioritize with a more complete vision, and living every day with the protagonism and proactivity of taking responsibility for the "electric shock", solving it for me and for others.

What to read next from Francisco Santolo