What can I say...some of us don't give up easy. I'm talking about the disaster online training I hosted last Monday evening. If you missed it you didn't miss much! Everything that could have gone wrong did.
Every Friday I do my scheduling for the next week and I've decided to again jump off the deep end and do another VereConference screen casting training. Trust me I learned a few things from last weeks distaster so it should go smoother this week.
I've changed the time so it's earlier in the day. (a big plus for me) It will be hosted in my Veretekk VereConference room. Access it by going to www.bestconference.net and click on the calendar icon.
Here is what I'm teaching: (hopefully)
- How advanced marketers use web conferencing to expand business
- How to brand and edit your presentations, convert to flash etc.
- Screen Casting
- Using DVD's in the conference room for training and/or entertainment
With that said, if you are like me (not the type that gives up easily) come to my training. Come early cause I'm going to limit the number of participants!
When: Tuesday Feburary 19, 2008
Where: Cindy McAsey's Veretekk VereConference Room
Time: 9 AM PST
What: VereConference Web Conference Room Training
Lessons of the Square Watermelon
This is a great online training lesson about problem solving. If you take this lesson and apply it to your business
you might be suprised at the solutions you can find.
Japanese grocery stores had a problem. They are much smaller than their US counterparts and therefore don’t
have room to waste. Watermelons, big and round, wasted a lot of space. Most people would simply tell the
grocery stores that watermelons grow round and there is nothing that can be done about it. That is how I would
assume the vast majority of people would respond. But some Japanese farmers took a different approach. If
the supermarkets wanted a square watermelon, they asked themselves, “How can we provide one?” It wasn’t
long before they invented the square watermelon.
The solution to the problem of round watermelons wasn’t nearly as difficult to solve for those who didn’t
assume the problem was impossible to begin with and simply asked how it could be done. It turns out that all
you need to do is place them into a square box when they are growing and the watermelon will take on the
shape of the box.
This made the grocery stores happy and had the added benefit that it was much easier and cost effective to
ship the watermelons. Consumers also loved them because they took less space in their refrigerators which
are much smaller than those in the US meaning that the growers could charge a premium price for them.
What does this have do with anything besides square watermelons? There are a few lessons that can you can
take away from this story which help you in all parts of your life.
Here are a few of them:
Don’t Assume: The major problem was that most people had always seen round watermelons so they
automatically assumed that square watermelons were impossible before even thinking about the question.
Things that you have been doing a certain way your entire life have taken on the aura of the round watermelon
and you likely don’t even take the time to consider if there is another way to do it. Breaking yourself from
assuming this way can greatly improve your overall life as you are constantly looking for new and better ways
to do things. This was one of the most difficult things for me to do because most of the assumptions I make, I
don’t even realize that I’m making them. They seem perfectly logical on the surface, so I have to constantly
make an effort to question them.
Question habits: The best way to tackle these assumptions is to question your habits. If you can make an
effort to question the way you do things on a consistent basis, you will find that you can continually improve the
way that you live your life. Forming habits when they have been well thought out is usually a positive thing, but
most of us have adopted our habits from various people and places without even thinking about them. I have
changed a large number of habits that I have had after taking the time to question them and continue to do so.
Some of them I have know idea where they came from while others I can trace to certain people or instances
in my life. It’s a never ending process, but by doing this, you can consistently strive toward making all aspects
of your life more enjoyable instead of defaulting to what you have now.
Be creative: When faced with a problem, be creative in looking for a solution. This often requires thinking
outside the box. Most people who viewed this question likely thought they were being asked how they could
genetically alter water melons to grow square which would be a much more difficult process to accomplish. By
looking at the question from an alternative perspective, however, the solution was quite simple. Being creative
and looking at things in different ways in all portions of your live will help you find solutions to many problems
where others can’t see them. I am not a creative person, but I’ve found that the more that you look at things
from different perspectives, the more creative I have become. It’s a learned art and builds upon itself.
Look for a better way: The square watermelon question was simply seeking a better and more convenient
way to do something. The stores had flagged a problem they were having and asked if a solution was possible.
It’s impossible to find a better way if you are never asking the question in the first place. I try to ask if there is a
better way of doing the things that I do and I constantly write down the things I wish I could do (but currently
can’t) since these are usually hints about steps I need to change. Get into the habit of asking yourself, “Is there
a better way I could be doing this”? and you will find there often is.
Impossibilities often aren’t: If you begin with the notion that something is impossible, then it obviously will be
for you. If, on the other hand, you decide to see if something is possible or not, you will find out through trial
and error. Many of the lessons above are what I used to create my online income. As I’ve said many times, it’s
not easy, but it’s certainly not impossible. Even for those of us that are not A-List Bloggers, creating a full time
online income is quite possible as I have shown.
Take away the lessons from the square watermelons and apply them to all areas in your life (work, finances,
relationships, etc) and you will find that by consistently applying them, you will constantly be improving all
aspects of your life.
