Resiliency requires the ability to find multiple solutions for an opportunity or a challenge. Leave it to a child to look at us in wide-eyed wonder when they offer up something we never even gave the slightest thought to. Actually, we look back at them in wonder and slap our forehead saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Like Braille!
By the age of five, in 1824, Louise Braille had lost his sight.He developed the raised dot system for reading and writing that bears his name today.What I marvel at is that a five year old was skilled enough in the alphabet and numbers to even consider dots.
Remember what it was like to have plain, boring school lockers? Well, if your dad is the CEO of MagnaCard, it took only a request from his daughter to make magnetic locker paper.Her design and patterns netted Daddy a cool $1 million in sales in one year!
Hand a kid a set of Legos and watch imagination run wild. One little guy at age five decided he could create a high-powered rocket launcher. I can’t say it was a commercial success BUT it was a design that certainly was not in the catalog of LEGO images.Plus, it kept his grandparents running wild to collect the projectiles and make sure no one was hurt. (OK, it was MY kiddo.)
Bottom line: if faced with a vexing problem ask a child how they might solve it.The sky is the limit. Throw the doors wide open.Let the light shine in.You might be amazed at what you find!