“There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard. There are not more than five primary colours, yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen. There are not more than five cardinal tastes, yet combinations of them yield more flavours than can ever be tasted.” ― Sun Tzu

I come from a family of entrepreneurs and FREE thinkers. For as far back as I can remember, my three brothers and I have been taught how to think outside of the box, be innovative in situations and to make a success of things.

Unlike much of this generation, we were taught that if we wanted money for things – you had to work for it…. And work for it we did!

I can remember all of us “testing the waters” with our entrepreneurial skills at very young ages. My brothers used to make packs of coasters out of used matchsticks – in fact, I actually still have a couple of those… and amazingly enough even though they are more than two decades old… only one match lost! Haha – they just don’t make things like they used to, right! ;)

My brothers also used to make mini rocking chairs and all sorts of other things out of wooden clothes pegs. Those were AWESOME – especially for my dolls. Lol – but sadly, I do not have a photo of one of those to show you.

They used to sell all of the above (and more) for their "recreational money"

I, being the youngest (and the only girl) was a little more… um… creative in my first approach to entrepreneurship? hahaha!!!– I created a garage sale one afternoon on the pavement in the front of our house (without my mother’s knowledge or consent) and apart from the few items of mine selected for sale, I went and grabbed most of the dresses from my moms cupboard to add to the garage sale and I hung them all over the place – I mean, everything has a price, right? Haha! – Yeah… that garage sale did NOT end too well hehe ;)

This enthusiasm for problem solving did not decrease as the years went on... My brothers sold everything from customised T-shirts to dummy car alarms and I used to make and sell hand made greeting cards, beaded jewelry - you name it!

So, it is no surprise then that we have all grown up to work for ourselves. It is pretty much a “no-brainer” when you have an attitude of “solution” rather than problem! Thinking like this allows you to move forward when so many others stay stuck - chasing their tails in circles.

We needed (or wanted rather lol)) money - and as our folks would not simply GIVE it to us - they taught us instead to make it for ourselves... so that we could learn to be self-sufficient and find SOLUTIONS for the challenges that presented themselves to us, instead of standing with our thumbs in our mouths.

“Well, if it can be thought, it can be done, a problem can be overcome,” ― E.A. Bucchianeri

For instance – after my post last week about my back pain etc. I have spent pretty much every day in radiology and at the chiropractor. I have now established that I have stage two osteo-arthritis. (yeah, not cool) – all compliments of my career and the fact that I spend more than 50% of 24 hours huddled over a laptop. This news has been a huge game changer for me….

But it is my career and (this) is also my passion (writing) – so there really isn’t space or time to sit and wallow about the “diagnosis” – I needed to find solutions and fast - ways to work around it. I think one of the main reasons this has all come to a crunch now (no pun intended) lol – is because of the additional hours I have added to laptop time because of steemit…. My body simply said NO - enough is ENOUGH!

For the last week I have had to work standing for ten minutes, then lie flat for ten minutes – which as you can imagine, is not great for getting ANYTHING done swiftly. So, today I decided to use the time flat on my back for my steemit writing – via speech to text and although not my preferred method - it works wonderfully as you can see...

You see where I am going with this, right ;)

There are no problems – there are only solutions!

I am faced with this reality EVERY SINGLE DAY in my business. You cannot burst into tears and hide in a corner when things get stressful, or don’t go quite the way you had intended. No – you have to switch into solution mode. You have to fix it, and you have to fix it QUICKLY!

“All my problems bow before my stubbornness.” ― Amit Kalantri

I feel that my brothers and I have been truly blessed to have been brought up with this kind of mentality and I do whatever I can to instill this into my son and his daily life too. I think ALL parents should afford their children such an opportunity. It will stand them in good stead later on in life.

Many will respond to that with “but I am not an entrepreneur, so how can I teach my kids” - All I hear is – EXCUSES!

There is YouTube people! There is GOOGLE! There are libraries!!!!!
Stop whinging and go and DO it for them!

In closure - There is a quote which I have always loved and I feel is enormously appropriate here…

If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse. - Jim Rohn

Until next time...

Much Love from Cape Town, South Africa xxx

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