Most of us are knowledge workers. Our primary contribution to the workplace involves handling and processing information. We are expected to leverage our domain understanding, creativity, and analytical skills to solve complex problems, make decisions, and ultimately deliver outcomes.
As knowledge workers, we can either derive comfort from dealing with the small problems or embrace the discomfort of focusing on solving the really hard problems.
The risk with hard problems is that the probability of failing is always high.
It’s a worthwhile risk, though- Because success earns you growth and recognition, and failure earns you experience and respect. More importantly, it increases the probability of you succeeding the next time around. It’s a win either way.
Wasting time on the small, irrelevant problems comes with no upside whatsoever. You only run the risk of becoming irrelevant and being ignored.
Seek out the hard problems and attack them. There is only upside there !!