Opportunity Knocks
By Rabbi Raymond Beyda
Some people hate to cook while others love to cook but can’t stand washing
dishes. The odor of a hand towel turns a lot of people off and looking for
a paper clip or a stapler can drive some people up a wall. These problems
are just a small inkling of the annoying problems people must overcome
daily. Problems problems problems life is a series of problems!
If one realizes that every problem is also an opportunity to be creative
in developing ways to avoid reoccurrence of the same problem a problem
could become an adventure in creativity. Someone who did not like to cook
had the idea to open fast food establishments and another invented a
microwave oven and a third the pre-cooked just heat it up dinner. Someone
who did not like to clean up the dirty dishes created an industry that
produces paper and plastic utensils for serving food and drink. That
annoying odor and a dislike for doing laundry led someone to invent paper
towels and then the business minds got to work on a tissue for the nose
and a napkin for the table as well as other disposable products that
eliminate the need for washing the laundry. Someone who wanted to attach a
note to a report invented the post-it note, which led to many self-stick,
non-messy products that adhere one item to another.
Today when you are hit with one of life’s inevitable problems don’t look
at it as a problemlook for an opportunity. It might be that the problem
you can’t tolerate is part of the human condition and if you come up with
a solution to enhance the quality of life this problem may just be your
opportunity to strike it rich. It only takes a minute to look past the
problem and listen for the “knock”.
Text Copyright © 2004 by Rabbi Raymond Beyda and Torah.org.
