Today I want to share with you an ultra-valuable business lesson from the movie The Martian with Matt Damon (my FAVE actor!). I saw the movie and LOVED it!! If you also saw it, you maybe missed the lesson, so here it is…
Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon, gets left behind on Mars after a fierce storm. His crew believes he’s dead, and they have to make the emergency decision to leave him there as they try to escape. He wakes up, totally alone on a distant planet, with only enough supplies for a few weeks and no working communication equipment. I was panicking just watching it on the screen!
But rather than giving up, Watney decides to get to work. He has this incredible, simple wisdom to share:
You have to solve one problem, and then solve the next problem, and then solve the next problem. “If you solve enough problems, you get to go home,” he says.
Obviously, this insight has far-reaching application for all of life. But as entrepreneurs, I want you to think about how this applies to your business right now. Running a business is basically just an endless exercise in problem-solving. It’s super easy to get overwhelmed, and then to become paralyzed because there’s so much to take care of.
Here’s what I want to you ask yourself: What one problem could I work on that would make the biggest positive impact on my business?
Decide what that is and then just hyper-focus on that one problem.
Don’t worry — all the other problems will still be there when you get back. Or, you know, maybe they won’t. Maybe you’ll solve a bunch of other problems on the way. This is the magic of Getting Started.
But there are so many! you say. I can’t decide.
Just pick one. Literally, just close your eyes and point at a list. Once you get going, you’ll build momentum towards becoming a solution-generating machine.
This is the secret to getting stuff done. Once you start, you rekindle hope and drive again, and this gets you out of overwhelm by giving you a sense of accomplishment. You’re in the driver’s seat again and on your way home, home to your dream life.
To our resilience!
Love & Success,
Heidi and Your Marketing Team
