Problems & Solutions

Imagine everything is fine and the way it’s supposed to be…. then BOOM! There’s a problem. What do you do? Well, it’s easy. You try to solve the problem and put everything back together…. simple, right? While the concept of solving a problem is clear on the surface, there’s so much more that happens underneath. If you don’t understand, let me put in a different perspective. Let’s say we’re forced to solve for variable x in this math equation: x2 - 5x + 9 = 0. On the surface of this problem, all we have to do is solve for x. But in reality, there are multiple steps and a process that requires some effort and concentration. Because you can’t factor this equation, we’re forced to use the quadratic formula, so let me do that really quick. 

Ok, here: (5 ± √(-5)2 - 4(1)(9)) / 2(1) = x

Now let me simplify: (5 ± √-11) / 2 = x

Ok, all done! See, it wasn’t too bad. Except for one tiny detail, which is that I didn’t get the solution. You’re all probably thinking something along the lines of: “What?! Why?!” Well, the reason for this not being a solution is because you can’t calculate a negative square root, therefore, the equation has no solution. Wait, then what was all this for? What was the purpose of everything I just did? Why did I specifically talk about solving problems, if I eventually came up with no solution.

And my answer to that is to show you that life is basically problems after problems that in the end, come to no solution. Think about going through life in the same way as going through that math equation. You’re forced to face each step to get closer to the solution. You can get through one step, but now you have to deal with another one. It’s this cycle of working your way through the problem and doing one step at a time. But then you realize something. What is the answer to all of this? And I think the truth is that maybe there isn’t one. The whole point is to just work your way through and go through each step of the process. It’s all about how you got there and what you did to get where you are. Don’t worry about the end, just do everything step by step, one by one, because if all you think about is finding the answer. Remember that sometimes, the problem has no solution… or it appears to. 

At some point we learned that there is a square root from a negative number, and it’s called a complex number. Which means that somebody, at some point, will invent a totally new thing to find a solution to the problem that had no solution before. In life, sometimes there’s a solution in an area where we never looked before, or haven’t discovered yet.