No problem is so formidable that you can't walk away from it. - Charles M. Schulz

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. - Herm Albright

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Story 1: Where to look

Buzzard

If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and is entirely open at the top, the bird will be an absolute prisoner, even though it knows how to fly.

It cannot escape because it always begins flying from the ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.

Bat

The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkably nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.

Bumblebee

A bumblebee that is dropped into an open tumbler will remain there until it dies, unless it is removed. It will persistently try to find a way out through the sides, near the bottom, because it never sees the means of escape at the top. It always seeks a way where none exists.

People

In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee. We engage in a constant struggle to solve our problems and frustrations, but we never realize that all we have to do is look up.

Story 2: Indians

Many years ago, in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer's beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain.

He said he would forgo the farmer's debt if he could marry his daughter.

Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they allow Providence to decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. The girl would pick one pebble from the bag.

1. If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father's debt would be forgiven.
2. If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven.
3. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They walked over to a pebble-strewn path in the farmer's field.

As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles.

The sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles.

He put them into the bag and asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.

Now, imagine that you were standing in the field. What would you have advised the girl to do?

Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:

1. The girl could refuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl could show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the money-lender as a cheat.
3. The girl could pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

Take a moment to think about the story. The girl's dilemma cannot be solved with traditional logical thinking. It requires lateral thinking – thinking out of the box – rather than logical thinking.

The girl was intelligent. This was her solution:

She put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path, where it became lost among all the other pebbles.

"Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked."

Since the remaining pebble was black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

Most complex problems do have a solution. However, sometimes we have to think out of the box in order to bag the right answer.