A Problem Is an Opportunity--Spoken Word Given by Lloyd D. Newell

A Problem Is an Opportunity

Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell

Henry J. Kaiser was a problem solver. Born to a German shoemaker in upstate New York, he eventually became the father of American shipbuilding. Along the way, he learned to see a problem not as a roadblock but as a chance to learn something or to create a new way of doing things. “Problems,” he said, “are only opportunities in work clothes.”1 Henry Kaiser had an opportunity to demonstrate the truth of this saying early in his career when the construction company he was working for unexpectedly went out of business. Where others would see only a problem, Henry saw an opportunity—he decided to take on one of his former company’s unfulfilled contracts himself. He finished the project ahead of schedule, and before long the Henry J. Kaiser Company was born.2 From there he created companies that paved roads, manufactured steel, and built houses. Throughout these many ventures, Henry J. Kaiser continued to see in every challenge a chance to move forward and find a better way. Life is full of problems. Opposition is not only unavoidable, it’s essential. Without opposition, without problems big and small to test our resolve and stimulate our thinking, we would accomplish very little. Muscles do not grow without resistance, and neither do people. Men and women often do their best when faced with what seems at first to be an overwhelming problem. So much good, so many great discoveries and new ideas have come from efforts to overcome problems that stood in the way of worthy goals. No one likes a problem, but the day may come when we can recognize it as a blessing in disguise. No matter how frightening it seems, if we strip away the mask of trouble, we will find the smiling face of opportunity. 1 In James B. Simpson, comp., Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations (1988), 97. 2 See “Henry J. Kaiser: The Legacy Continues,” http://home.earthlink.net/~peterferko/keweb/aboutke/history.htm. Program #4147