The Problematic Opportunity

We all know , “One man’s problem is other man’s opportunity” or in other words “In every problem hides an opportunity”. But how do we spot them ? when in today’s information society, almost everything is becoming a commodity”.

Even when big corporations are building unique services and products , the pirating time is becoming almost negligible unless there is a heavy government intervention. Of course when the government intervenes much then it means that there is not much profit to be made in that kind of business.

So what is my point. I see “Problematic opportunity” everywhere and I feel what is required is a ” sense of entrepreneurship”. Well there are millions of information , websites… even university courses to teach you entrepreneurship..i mean bookish … , but in reality “ Entrepreneurship is caught not taught“. Ask any entrepreneur, deep down their decision to venture….must have some strong emotional/personal reason…..

O.K. I am sharing this story which I had heard sometime back which probably could ignite some of our thinking/feeling towards leveraging “the problematic opportunity”. Even if this story is kind of vague…try to take the message.. its really rewarding especially when you are trying to make your mark around establishes business-sharks.

“Once upon a time there was a town in the central Europe. The people were all preoccupied with their day-to-day work. There was a big-dead rat in a busy street in the outskirts of the town. Everyone who walked thru this street were kicking the rat to every corner of the street instead of clearing the rat off the street. An young man noticed this “dead rat” and he immediately took its tail by his hand and started walking. He also didn’t throw it into the dustbin .

People were initially inquisitive over the young man carrying the dead rat, hence they asked him “why he wasn’t throwing the rat into dustbin ?”, for which the man said that he has spotted a business opportunity with this. People thought that this young man was crazy and started making funny comments on him.Nevertheless the young man carried the dead-rat and walked.

When he was approaching the main town , he started walking near the bungalow’s of rich-merchants. These rich-merchants used to have big-cats and they used to feed them well. Over the years, these cats have grown lazy and fluffy. One such cat was excited over this young man’s dead rat. That rich merchant took notice of his cat’s excitement and he asked the young man to give his dead-rat. The young man readily agreed , but asked a “gold coin” as the price for the dead rat. The merchant was angry and asked the man “why a gold coin, when you are going to throw away this dead-rat anyway”.The young man replied ” O.K. Sir. The price of this dead-rat is a gold coin. Deal or No Deal”.

The gold coin wasn’t a big deal for the merchant , so he offered the young man the gold coin for the dead rat.The young man was happy and he immediately went to a jeweler and exchanged his gold coin for 50 silver coins. He spotted some boys playing in the small neighborhood around these bungalows. He told each one that he would give a “silver coin” , if they can get him a rat (alive/dead).Slowly , he started building his Cat-food business around this .”

Do you see any problematic opportunity…….if so..let me know…..