Resourcefulness Throwback – Get Out

Literally. To be resourceful – Get Out. Get moving.

Being resourceful is an attribute that is dormant in all of us. Dormant, not dominant. The challenge is to have the right conditions for this attribute to emerge and flourish.

However, we can’t sit and wait for things to happen. As we all know, if it doesn’t happen, it won’t happen.

We have to force the conditions to emerge. Based on my observations, there are 3 categories of conditions that is necessary for anyone to be extremely resourceful.

1. When you have no money, and no one to lend you any.
2. When you are starting out, and no one is able and willing to help you.
3. When you feel the pain of starvation, and worrying for the next meal.

Naturally, these are my observations. There could be more.

What all these scenarios have in common is a strong sense of desperation. Desperation, is a form of motivation. A strong one.

And when we are desperate enough - keyword is “enough” - we will get out of our comfort zone and start moving. Fast.

Through conversations with contacts, I get to see the symmetry between desperation and resourcefulness. When you are desperate enough, the World will present itself in a different light.

These folks know where they need to be. If the journey they embark on is meandering, they move fast. If the destination is no longer the place they want to be, they change and move on. Fast.

In this post, I will share 2 stories that I have had experience with and have anchored in mind as cornerstones of “Resourcefulness” and “Resourceful Individuals”.

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# 1 – Financial Planner Ben

That’s right. Financial Planners. If you understand the challenge they are facing, you know the odds are stacked high against them. Just imagine, what would you think of childhood friend Ben (okay you might not have a friend named Ben, but that’s not the point) if he recently joined a financial planning company?

Yet, the Ben that I know – is extremely resourceful. He knows that for him to have a shot in the industry, he would require a. Lots and lots of people to talk to, b. Lots of time that people can spare him.

How he achieved both a. and b. is a pure play of a genius. In Singapore, males need to get through and pass an annual fitness assessment. Failing which, we have to attend remedial training for 20 sessions.

He found his way to remedial training.

He got new contacts. And lots of people. And 90 minutes per session. And they are bored. And they are looking for entertaining conversations.

The fox is in the hen-house.

# 2 – Entrepreneur Joe

Small Business owners can be very P&L sensitive. Not all of them are made from the same mould of course, I can only speak from the observations of my contacts. While these friends of mine believe in their business, they also understand that everything is cost without revenue.

Joe works to equate Net with Gross. When he is not client-facing or working on his conquer-the-world marketing plans, he gets obsessed with getting things for free.

Makes sense. $0 expenses mean his net profit can approximate his gross earnings.

He will be thinking - “How can I get product presentation opportunities without blowing potential client buying opportunities, and at near $0 cost?”

His extensive online research says this. Get back to school.

So he signs up for a Professional Development 3-day programme meant for Product Pitches and Digital Copywriting. His course fees are highly subsidised for through grants, and he gets to product pitch multiple times (real products he has, not fictitious ones that most students including myself got to fake) in front of a class of 50.

I got acquainted with him in class. Through interactions in class, I know that he is there for a purpose. It’s funny how people with purpose carry themselves. They are like Martians to mere mortal Earthlings.

Best of all - there is no penalty for a blown-up pitch. He gets to try new approaches to pitching with near 100% subsidies from grants.

By the end of the course, he has completed new product pitch books using refined passive and active techniques based on feedback collected in class.

In my language, that’s called Infinite Return on Learning.

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Resourcefulness is a matter of knowing what we want to achieve and not allowing insufficient resources at hand to stop us from getting there. Sometimes, we are just not looking hard enough or we are bounded by the constructs of limited life experiences we have.

All we have to do is to Get Out. Get moving. We will start to see many windows of possibilities we never have previously.

#Resourcefulness

#ThrowbackSeries

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*** To learn more, connect with me on Linkedin where I share my viewpoints on overlooked topics that will help you better understand our world.

About the Author:

As a finance and thinking enthusiast, I believe in making the complex simple.

Because simplicity adds value.

I do that through reflections (#ThrowbackSeries), building perspectives (#DecodedSeries) and understanding entrepreneurs (#ConversationWithEntrepreneurs). 

Simplicity helps us gain clarity, and clarity helps us to grow. 

And if we are not growing, then what’s the point of anything else?

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