<p>Just how big are your problems?&nbsp; Would you like them to be bigger?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Some people have huge problems.&nbsp; Their problems are so big that I feel better just hearing about them.&nbsp; Because then my problems pale in comparison.&nbsp; Every time I hear about the devastation of a hurricane, I wonder how people in its path manage.&nbsp; They rose to the challenge.&nbsp; The stakes were high-life and death.&nbsp; They played a big game.</p> <p>Other people are concerned over smaller things.&nbsp; I have a delightful young friend who is just turning five years old.&nbsp; His concerns are where he is going to have his birthday party-the local fire station-and if I will be there.&nbsp; The size of the problems relates to the size of the game.&nbsp; There are small problems.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>Four year olds have small problems.&nbsp; Some adults choose small problems.&nbsp; They take those small problems and inflate them.&nbsp; They take their small problems and choose to make them big.&nbsp; They use what could be big game energy on small, inflated problems.&nbsp; I remember a mastermind group meeting I attended about five years ago.&nbsp; I was talking about an issue I was having with an ex-wife.&nbsp; Another member of the group looked at me and said, "Is that what you really want to spend your time talking about?"&nbsp; I stopped instantly.&nbsp; I reflected.&nbsp; Was that what I wanted to talk about?&nbsp; Was that the size of the problem I wanted to talk about?&nbsp; Was that the size of the game I wanted to play?&nbsp; I was taking a small problem and making it big.&nbsp; In that moment, I realized I had a decision to make.&nbsp; It was my choice.&nbsp; I could choose the size of the problems I wanted to give my attention to.&nbsp; I could choose to keep the small problems small.&nbsp; I was choosing the size of my game by choosing the size of my problems.&nbsp; It is a choice.&nbsp; I get to make that choice.&nbsp; I want to play a bigger game.&nbsp; I want bigger problems.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>CEO's have big problems.&nbsp; Their decisions can affect a whole company.&nbsp; Those on a national level have even bigger problems.&nbsp; To increase the size of the game, one starts smaller and works up to bigger.&nbsp; Look at Ben Bernanke. &nbsp;Early on, he started working on a bigger game at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received his Ph.D.&nbsp; Then he taught at Stanford Graduate School of Business, New York University and then Princeton University.&nbsp; He kept upping the size of his game.&nbsp; Now as the chair of the Federal Reserve, Bernanke faces money issues that could determine whether our whole country goes into recession.&nbsp; Huge problem.&nbsp; Huge game.&nbsp; The Federal Reserve in today's world economy actually has global impact.&nbsp; Gigantic game.&nbsp; Gigantic problems.&nbsp; He gets huge press for most anything he even says about money.&nbsp; He has continued to play larger.&nbsp;</p> <p>How big do you want your problems to be?&nbsp; I still love listening to the little problems of my four-year-old friend.&nbsp; It offers me perspective.&nbsp; It is said that each success is a ticket to the next larger problem.&nbsp; How big are your problems?&nbsp; What size game do you want to play?&nbsp; Are you looking to play a bigger game?&nbsp; So then you want bigger problems too!</p> 2008-12-29T04:25:46Z -13.5424 166 2618 true 17 22372 i-want-bigger-problems 0 2009-01-01T00:24:41Z 2009-01-01T00:24:41Z

If you have bigger business, you have bigger problems. It can be difficult to remember that in the face of those big problems.

0 2009-02-24T09:48:07Z