I was at a Milwaukee Brewer’s Game a few years back and I got an order of nachos. As I was watching the game, my nacho cheese developed a rather unappealing film. Nachos ruined right? Not so fast. Utilizing the tools at my disposal, a tortilla chip, I was able to push the film aside and enjoy the rest of my nachos. The nacho cheese was still good, I just had to make one small change.
Now, I don’t plan to go into the biology of nacho cheese or get lost in whether or not it’s gross to ingest filmed-over cheese. It’s not. My purpose here is to share the knowledge I gained by pushing that bad cheese aside; the act of making one, small change and removing the immediate problem allowed me to enjoy what remained. Apply that to business tech? Sure:
Let’s say that you have a business and that business hasn’t invested in IT infrastructure since 2013. PCs are slow and you live in constant fear of a security breech. While your fears are absolutely justified, you find that you don’t have the financials to rebuild your entire technology environment. Now what? Go out of business? Throw those nachos away, right?
Or…
Take a look at what you can do. What is the immediate problem? The PCs are slow and your security is outdated. New PCs with modern operating systems will do a lot to help with both of those problems and are a great place to start. Solve the immediate problem and take it one step at a time. Once you solve the immediate problem, you will see that there is plenty of good cheese left to work with (ie: that phone system is probably OK for now).
We can apply this to many situations:
Business
- Financial reporting is all wrong? Focus on one key area. The rest will improve also.
- Marketing strategy is useless? You’re one brilliant ad away from tying it all together.
Personal
- Need to lose weight? You will look and feel way better after just 5-10 pounds lost. Realistic, attainable goals.
- Robbed a liquor store? I got no cheese here…. Probably want to turn yourself in and see what you can do to scrape the cheese off that prison sentence.
The theory doesn’t work for everything, but the principle applies to most realistic situations. It all comes down to minimizing the problem to what it really is, and accepting the value in all that remains.
Meet The Author
About Scott
I started my adult life as a graphic designer and I’ve tried to maintain that creativity throughout my career in Information Technology.
Over my twenty-plus-year career, I have worked a range of technical positions. I understand the limitations and the potential of technology. It is through the use of creativity and experience that I have been able to help companies integrate and optimize technology in their manufacturing and business environments, creating stable business processes and moving them forward.
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