Albert Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”
I love this because most of us jump from one problem to the next, trying to “fix” things without getting to the root of why the problem is happening.
Here are 3 tips to strike at the root of a problem:
1. Don’t Hack at the Branches
Einstein’s point is gold: most people rush to fix symptoms instead of solving causes.
It’s normal and natural to hack at branches. The branches might disappear for a moment, but the problem is they grow back bigger and stronger—usually at the worst possible times.
Here’s what hacking at the branches looks like in real life:
- Health: Cutting calories for a week but never facing the stress or habits that make you overeat at night.
- Relationships: Saying sorry for the latest fight but never addressing the real hurt underneath. (Buried feelings always resurface, usually stronger.)
- Productivity: Slapping a shiny new “to-do app” on your chaos but never clarifying what actually matters most.
The branches keep growing back.
Breakthrough happens when you stop hacking at branches and strike the root.
Branch hacking produces a false sense of accomplishment. It makes you feel like you’re making progress… until the problem sprouts up again and becomes systemic.
Solving at the root level is more challenging in the short term, but as my Wyoming cowboy friend Pappa Hyde put it so brilliantly: “If you take the time it takes, it takes less time.”
2. Control the Controllables
Getting to the root isn’t about fixing everything. It’s about focusing on what you actually can influence.
Here’s the trap:
- You can’t control the economy.
- You can’t control the weather.
- You can’t control your business partner, your team, or your competitor’s choices.
But you can control how you prepare, how you respond, and what you choose to do next.
Mother Goose gives the best advice:
“For every ailment under the sun, there is a remedy or there is none.
If there be one, try to find it.
If there be none, never mind it.”
Think of it like this: If a tree keeps dropping bad fruit, screaming at the fruit won’t change a thing. Neither will worrying about the wind, the sun, or the rain. What you can control is how you tend the soil, water the roots, and prune what’s in your reach.
When you control the controllables:
- The problem shrinks to solutions within your reach.
- The stress lifts. You release the weight of what was never yours to carry.
- The progress accelerates. Energy flows into action instead of frustration.
A great root question is:
“What’s the one thing in this situation I actually can control—and am I owning it fully?”
3. Make New Mistakes
The only real failure is recycling the same mistake over and over again.
When you go deeper—when you tackle problems at the root—you will mess up. But those mistakes are different. They’re fresh. They’re signs you’re pushing into new territory.
New mistakes = progress.
Old mistakes = patterns.
So the goal isn’t perfection. The goal is evolution.
Perfection is the enemy of progress.
Every new mistake carries a lesson you couldn’t have learned any other way. And those lessons compound into breakthroughs.
If you’re not making new mistakes, you’re not moving forward.
Make it a mantra on your team: “We make new mistakes.”
A Challenge for Leaders
When you attack problems:
- Don’t hack at the branches. Get to the root.
- Control the controllables.
- Make new mistakes.
It’s easy to hack at branches. The highest-impact leaders learn to strike at the root.
Make it a great day, my friend 🤝
