Each of us likely has a challenge lying right in front of us.  What to do with that challenge?

Many of you will take on the challenge and learn your way through it.

Some will ignore the challenge, moving sideways and pretending it doesn’t really exist.  (At least for awhile.)

Some will stop in their tracks and go nowhere, hoping to go back to when life was so much more comfortable.

To learn and to produce an impact in our work and our lives requires that we boldly take on the challenges in front of us.  This is how we learn and apply what we are learning to create a greater impact.

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, took on a number of challenges to grow his business into a global Top 50 website.  He boastfully tells of one challenge that he himself actually generated into an even higher level challenge for the company.  Alexis was brought into a meeting with an executive at Yahoo that was considering an acquisition of the company.  He was told by the executive up front that Reddit was really just a rounding error because their traffic was so small.  The acquisition would not occur.

Alexis could have responded to this statement by ignoring the “traffic” challenge or hoping that it would go away.  Instead, he embedded the challenge into the company by putting a large sign on the wall of the Reddit offices that read, “You are a rounding error.”  Challenge gladly accepted in the form of a negative reinforcer and the company became even more determined to reach it’s fully imagined potential.  And they are obviously creating the impact they were determined to attain.

How are you activating yourself and others to take on the challenges that lie in your path?  What impact might you create?  What would the sign on your wall read?

“I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent— no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.”    —  Seneca  —

MITM