solving impossible problems for the second time

A lot of problems at Interact have felt impossible, and had to be solved twice. We solved the problem of building a great quiz builder, then 7 years into building the business we had to re-factor from the ground up. That felt impossible. We solved the problem of GTM as a bootstrapped business with heavily funded competitors. 10 years into the business, our customer base disintegrated because of economic shifts, starting over felt impossible. Those are the two biggest, but there are numerous smaller examples.

When impossible situations come up there are two separate mental tracks.

1. The problem. This is literally what’s going on. You have to re-factor, you need to reboot your GTM. Those are the actual problems, and can be solved.

2. The burnout. This is the feeling of having given it your all the first time, just to realize you now have to start over again and solve an impossible problem, again. Most people don’t make it through this one.

Solving the actual problem is simple. You break it down into component parts, then fix each part, or continue breaking it down, until you fix all the parts.

Avoiding burnout is almost impossible. This is where almost everyone fails. Re-solving a problem is hard because you almost feel a sense of injustice. Why did this happen to me? You feel a sense of shame, how am I so bad at my job that I let this happen? You feel bored, why am I doing the same thing again?

Those are just a few of the feelings, there are way more. And that’s what kills companies.

In reaction, people try to take shortcuts, ship a half-baked solution to the problem, instead of really rooting it out and getting the the core. They try to enter a new market instead of fixing the core issue so they can get back to their customers. They try to go halfway in, halfway out, because it’s too painful to admit that you have to truly solve the same problem again. The energy isn’t there this second time the way it was the first time.

For us with Interact, it was, and always is, a practice of dying to the ego. The ego wants to say “We shouldn’t have to be fixing this again, we’re better than this!” and that’s the deathmonger. When we put that part of our brain to rest, then we can actually see the problem clearly and address it. Even if it takes years, and doesn’t feel very good while we’re re-starting.

But something odd happens when we accept the situation and dive into solving the same problem for a second time. We get really consultative with our own company. We see clearly how to break down the problem until each piece of it is so small it can be solved in a day, or at most a week. We start to really make progress. Then, over time, the speed at which we deliver is faster than ever before. So we end up going faster and further than we could have it things hadn’t collapsed in the first place.

Second time problem solving is where the hardened business owners make it work, and become the resilient, indestructible founders who can literally get through anything. It’s all mental, it’s all about staying out of burnout by focusing on the smallest piece you can successfully fix in one day.