Most problems exist because some system we have experience with is broken. There’s water on the floor. Turns out a pipe is broken. We call a plumber.

Or, sales are dropping for an item we sell online. So we call an SEO expert, or a designer, or a developer, or we redesign the product.

With problems, we nearly always assume the premise. We assume the system the problem lives within. And in doing so, we nearly always accept the boundaries of that system and all its “rules.”

As business writer Jack Foster puts it, “Business people ask the wrong questions all the time. Many times these questions are based on assumptions so deep-seated, they don’t even know they’re making those assumptions.”

Yes, solving problems can work. But what if we were far more interested in solving for opportunity?

Opportunities are widely available but they’re not often obvious.

They tend to come from disparate ideas being combined. From happy accidents.

Most opportunities don’t yet exist. They can be tricky to “see.” They need to be actualized.

Few of us are celebrated for merely solving problems. Opportunities are different. Opportunities create value in ways solving problems rarely does and value is nearly always celebrated.

Solving for opportunity connects disparate things in new ways to create things worth having around. Few of us are charged with finding and solving for opportunity. Yet, we all could be.

Now for an example: I know of someone who gets free flights on a particular airline. Sure it’s always standby. However, it’s always free.

He’s taken this fact for granted for years and only exploited it when he wanted to travel for leisure. It’s what most of us would do, right?

He sees this differently now. My friend has found a way to bring together his expertise in professional services—where travel costs are assumed by the client—with his free travel perk. Thus, he gets paid twice. Once for the service and once for the flight he never bought. Now he has more margin to work with, making him more competitive.

What opportunities do you have that are yet to be solved for? What opportunity could you be charged with solving for? What seemingly disparate pieces of information could you connect and build value from?