November 2025

I think I’ve talked about this topic before in the blog where I wrote about hypocrisy in my company, but this will be a slightly different perspective on an area I am really working on myself.

“The definition of business is problems… success lies not in the elimination of problems but in the art of creative, profitable problem solving. The best companies are those that distinguish themselves by solving problems most effectively.” – Irvine Harris

This quote, along with many of the podcasts I watch—specifically The Founders Podcast—has really changed my attitude toward problems and mistakes in business. For 20-plus years, I would overreact to employee mistakes, which did nobody any good and was very unprofessional. Back then, even though our company was growing at ridiculous rates, these things weren’t acceptable. Dumb me!

I have now learned that many successful people agree that problems are opportunities to grow and get better. This has changed my reaction and philosophy around mistakes and problems, and I have asked my whole team to welcome this new mindset as well.

In a rapidly growing business, problems are part of that growth, and how they are handled is what distinguishes a good business from a bad one.

“Problems are an asset and opportunity—not something to avoid but something to run toward.” – Brad Jacobs in his book How to Make a Few Billion Dollars

Solving problems by leaving the ego out of it and working together as a team is simply what business is. Now, our monthly continuous improvement meetings feel different, and as a team, we are learning from our mistakes and trying to prevent recurrence, which means we will serve our customers better.