I love Sudokus, especially when trying to relax. They are classic puzzles. As you work with them, more knowledge is developed which leads to the solution. That's how all puzzles work. You keep developing more information until the solution emerges. A mystery is the opposite. You may have all the information up front. You're unable to solve it because of the way you are looking at it. More data only further obscures the answer because there is now more being incorrectly viewed. A mystery is only solved by finding the correct way to look at the existing situation.
Our western educational systems present the world as a big puzzle and they offer the promise that if we just get enough education we would be able to solve our problems with the data we would now be smart enough to collect. There is no doubt to the value of an education; however, it's not this simple. Life is a mystery not a puzzle.
Sherlock Holmes solved mysteries. It wasn't only that he collected more data (which he did). In the Sherlock Holmes stories, he connected all his observations to solve the mystery. These connections catch most readers by surprise because we are still collecting more data in our minds when Sherlock has been eliminating dead ends and arriving at the unseen answer. Perhaps the single Sherlock quote that best sums up all of these time-honored tales is his comment to Watson, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
In a mystery, we quickly get to a point where more data only causes more confusion. A solution only begins to evolve when we disregard our training to collect more information and begin to realize the problem is that we are looking at it the wrong way. When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.
Business is also not a puzzle and more analysis often leads to more frustration. Like life, business is a mystery. The successful business owner or professional doesn't need more information than the competition. The successful Active Investor needs insight. The key to the information age isn't more information. It's developing better ways to connect what we may already know.
As an example, we still hear of business people viewing sales and marketing as a numbers games. There is goal setting that encourages mindless activities repeating a minimum number of daily "fishing" activities. The idea is that if any number of data points get high enough, success will be forced to happen. Success can never be forced. Look at what's already going on. Eliminate the impossible and whatever remains, however improbable, must be your truth. That is, the truth of what you are about, where you need to take your enterprise. Actively invest in those things. Success evolves from those activities that are working and that you believe in.
How can you determine if you are seeing a possible solution to your mystery? One clue is if the resulting activities are in harmony with the Active Investor blog theme: growth follows activities that are repetitive, powerful, and gentle. If they are, you may have your insight.
Developing business insight is the mystery. There is no puzzle.
image credit: Egan Snow
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Bob - a good article. An interesting additional comment I would make is that a lot of people are thinking of becoming a business owner but think it carries too much risk. Not sure I agree with that logic as the alternative is to work for the government or with an employer and then take your lumps when they decide they can no longer keep you. The alternative is to live life on your terms and learn the skills to successfully negotiate the economy as it ducks and weaves; or in simple terms, learn to manage the risk rather than be left to react to it.
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