The Idea of Crossing the Ford - Problem-Solving

I was reading a book this morning and it mentioned this notion of "crossing the ford". In a basic sense, the idea is to identify a problem and then look for a way to attack the problem in an opportunistic way.

Does this mean looking for a shortcut to problems?

Not necessarily. But it sometimes can mean looking for a shortcut to a problem. Shortcuts aren't bad, what's bad is when people start to focus solely on shortcuts and think that they are a replacement for hard work.

Shortcuts will never replace hard work, but identifying an opportunistic approach for a problem is not the same thing as looking for a replacement for hard work through a shortcut.

Identifying an opportunistic approach is simply looking for the best time, place, action, person, etc. to get the job done.

Example:

I always love to use investing as an example because I'm infatuated with the craft.

A common problem in investing is: "How do we raise more capital?"

If you find an investing strategy that works and you want to profit from it, raising capital is going to be one of the toughest challenges you face.

If you're adopting the approach of "crossing the ford" - looking for an opportunistic moment to raise capital - you will have to follow steps that look something like this:

1. Identify the problem - Raising capital.
2. Quantifying the problem - how much capital do you need (we'll use $10,000 for ease)
3. List some possible solutions - ask friends and family to invest, look in your own bank account and savings, get an extra job, take out a loan, etc.
4. Investigate each solution for the most opportune one - for this example, let's say you investigate all of the above solutions and find that there lies an opportune moment to take advantage of one of them. The opportunity is with your own finances. In 1 month you have an investment contract ending and will receive the principal plus interest on that date. You've researched all of these ideas thoroughly and have found that you can either get a loan tomorrow and start investing in your strategy straight-away, or you can wait 1 month and get even more money with no interest rate (because it's yours and not a loan).
5. Choose a solution and work hard at it - choosing a solution shouldn't be too hard. There should be one solution that has clearly laid out advantages like lower risk profile, less interest, etc.

When you've found your opportunity, you need to press the pedal to the metal. Don't play around with the idea of other solutions once you've chosen. The majority of your time should be spent putting in the hard work - grinding on the solution.

Crossing the ford (in a broader sense) is a 2 step process:

1. You look for the right opportunity to attack the problem
2. You work your butt off to make that opportunity a reality

There is no replacement for hard work and when you mix hard work with the right opportunity, magical things can happen.

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What problem are you tackling today?