Chapter 62: The Hidden Trait Of High Performers

I've noticed something about high performers.

They don't run from problems. They run towards them.

Which sounds simple, but most people do the opposite. They avoid them, delay solving them, and hope things work themselves out.

But ironically, that just makes problems drag out longer.

After studying this pattern enough, I'm convinced being a problem-solving machine is the cheat code to getting what you want.

Let me explain.

A Lesson from Matt Damon

You ever see the movie The Martian, with Matt Damon?

Matt Damon plays an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars.

The entire world thinks he's dead, so what does he do?

He becomes the first person to grow food on Mars, uncovers an old rover, figures out how to communicate with NASA, treks across the planet, and launches into space to meet the rescue rocket.

At the end, he's teaching the next generation of astronauts and drops one of my favorite movie quotes:

"You solve one problem, then you solve the next. And if you do that long enough, you get to come home."

Here's what this looks like in the real world👇

The Billionaire Who Solves 3 Problems a Day

I was listening to a podcast this week where the host tells a story about a conversation he had with a billionaire.

He asked him: "What do you do all day?"

Most people would assume his day is filled with high-level meetings, completely detached from the rest of the company.

But the billionaire's main objective every single day is to walk the halls of his company, talk to everybody, and solve three problems.

Sales guy has an IT issue? He gets the IT guy to fix it that day.

Marketing stuck on messaging? He sits down and they figure it out.

Three problems a day.

That's 1,000 problems solved per year.

This guy built a billion-dollar company not through grand strategy or vision boards, but by showing up every day as a problem-solving machine.

A Personal Story

Almost exactly a year ago, I was in Portugal and my visa wasn't going to be approved before I'd get kicked out of the country.

I had a choice: give up and leave, or become a problem-solving machine.

So I booked a last-minute flight to New York for 48 hours to take a long-shot swing at getting it approved.

I made my appointment, but I was missing one document.

So I mailed it off for an apostille to Washington DC and flew back to Portugal. Two weeks later (when it was sent back to UPS in New York), I hired a TaskRabbit to pick it up and deliver it to the embassy.

Three weeks later, my visa got approved and I (legally) spent the rest of the year in Portugal.

Once again, it pays to be a problem-solving machine.

Why This Actually Matters

I look at this as an identity game.

You might think you're an entrepreneur, or a creator, or a salesperson, or whatever title you have.

But I'd argue if you stop thinking of yourself as whatever title you use and just become a problem-solving machine, shit gets simpler.

You stop waiting around for the perfect moment.

Stop overthinking every decision.

Stop needing someone to tell you it's okay to start.

You just look at what's broken and fix it.

That's it.

Business not growing? Problem to solve.

Don't know how to do something? Problem to solve.

Out of shape? Problem to solve.

Different games, but the same approach.

Just solve the next problem in front of you.

Then the next one.

Cause everything you want is on the other side of 1,000 solved problems.

I hope this helps.

— Dodds

P.S The doors for the next cohort of Story30 open in two weeks. If you’re a founder, freelancer, or brand builder that wants to work with me to build a short form content strategy that grows your audience and business — you can get on the list here.