Assets

Westley: What are our liabilities?
Inigo Montoya: There is but one working castle gate, and... and it is guarded by 60 men.
Westley: And our assets?
Inigo Montoya: Your brains, Fezzik's strength, my steel.

Westley: I mean, if we only had a wheelbarrow, that would be something.
Inigo Montoya: Where we did we put that wheelbarrow the albino had?
Fezzik: Over the albino, I think.
Westley: Well, why didn't you list that among our assets in the first place?

-The Princess Bride (Movie, 1987)

I loved that movie. My kids watched it over and over again it we all pretty much memorized it. Westley makes a good point. Make sure you list all your assets when confronting a problem. Even the humble things may hold the key to success.

When we are confronted with problems it's easy to overlook what we do have. Maybe we don't have money, but our skills and attitude can more than make up for that. Maybe we don't have that new gizmo we want, but we have a pile of junk, some tools, and a plan.

People have taken pretty humble skills: cooking baking, jam making, duck call building, and made them into successful businesses.

There's even a guy, David Rees, who's made a successful business sharpening pencils. He's really really good at sharpening pencils, but who would have thought there was a business there? The video is actually pretty fascinating.

Often the key to success is to be able to think of using things in ways they weren't intended for. I remember a talking to a engineer who worked on a huge commercial biomass burner. There were view ports to observe the process. The special glass would get scratched by the wood chips and have to be replaced. Those glass ports were outrageously expensive. He replaced them with clear glass Pyrex pie plates. They lasted as long as the special glass ports, but where a whole lot cheaper. Even better, since the backside of the plate got the scratches, it was still possible to use them to make pies.

As for me, I'm happy to have a wheelbarrow as part of my assets.

-Sixbears