Everyone has problems to solve

The solution might seem obvious to you, or perhaps the obstacle does not appear very threatening from your perspective — but everyone has problems to solve, and they could use your help.

Many people under value the outside perspective (the insights and opinions that can be contributed by someone who works in an unrelated field or industry), yet they fully buy into the idea of “being too close to the problem” and having to take a step back.

The problem is, they aren’t stepping back far enough.

If you work in the marketing division of the automotive industry and you take a step back, you have taken off your marketing hat, but you’re still standing inside the automotive industry.

When you have problems to solve look outside your small domain and into the greater world around you.

Johannes Gutenberg, the man commonly credited with the invention of the modern printing method, did not come up with the ideas for moveable type, a special formula for mixing ink, and the new wooden printing press design because he worked in the printing industry — there was no printing industry!

Gutenberg came up with these concepts because he connected ideas from his work as a goldsmith where he did created engravings used for minting coins, and the completely unrelated field of wine making when he saw the process of using a large wooden machine to crush grapes into wine.

A solution created by blending seemingly disparate pieces of knowledge came together to create a completely new idea for mass producing the written word and changed the world forever.

Want a world-changing idea to help solve a problem?

Leave your little world behind and take a look at the big ideas outside.