Career Mission's Chief Executive Officer, A. Harrison Barnes discussed how many a time obvious solutions are overlooked.

Harrison narrates a bizarre incident, which involved a poorly constructed asphalt sealer tank that he had rented. He had rented an asphalt sealer tank that had a pipe welded to the bottom of the tank which meant that it shook when it was on the freeway. He had gotten on the freeway with his tank and because of the ass-backwards design of this rental tank, it had shaken loose and poured a 3 mile path of asphalt sealer all through the City of St. Clair Shores, by the time he had exited the freeway at 9 mile drive. It was a complete disaster.

He was summoned to court where among others, environmental protesters had also shown up for the hearing. After lot of deliberations the court asked him to pay $18,000 to get the tar removed from the street. Later Harrison gave a solution where he suggested that he could himself pick up the material and put it on a driveway. “It is asphalt sealer. That is what it is made for,” he said matter-of-factly.

The entire court room fell silent. Everyone very quickly realized the ridiculousness of the whole situation. There were all these studies and all of this issue about the environment, when all that was needed was to pick up the asphalt sealer and reuse it on a driveway.

It was amazing how something so simple had been overanalyzed and the most obvious solution had been overlooked. So many people overlook the obvious.  In your job search and life do not overlook the obvious.  Many times the solution to whatever problem you are facing is right in front of you and very simple.  We often create mountains out of mole hills for reasons that simply make no sense.