The word “solution,” which we generally apply to resolving a problem, comes closest to the chemical term “dissolve” defined above. Chemically a solid is dissolved when combined with a substance which breaks it down into its basic elements. When we “solve” a problem, we may “separate it into component parts” along the way, but our real intent is to “cause it to disappear!” We can only “melt” the solid wall of a problems when we identify the core elements and the procedure that dissolves or resolves them.
    Unfortunately many attempted “solutions” simply make the problem worse, and often the “solution” turns into a problem itself. Consider the young woman who hates her mother and is desperate to leave home. To “solve” this problem, she marries prematurely. Her youth and inexperience have not equipped her for the complexities of compromise required to make a marriage work. The marriage is a worse mess than her previous life at home. The “solution” has become a worse problem. To “solve” this problem, she becomes pregnant, thinking that having a child will keep the marriage together.
    You can guess the rest. Soon she is divorced. The teen-age father can’t pay child support and so she must go to work and somehow raise the infant at the same time. Her series of “solutions” have created worse and worse problems.
    Why? Because none of her “solutions” have dissolved the original issue. The core elements of the problem had to do with her communication and relationship with her mother and her failure to get help in dealing directly with the problem. Because her “solutions” flew in exactly the opposite direction, they worsened rather than resolved the problem.

The marketing problem
The essential marketing problem is getting more quality business in the door. Like the young girl above, the typical businessperson tries strenuous “solutions” to this problem. Many follow the costly example of the Government where the “solution” of choice is to throw money at the problem.
    Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent on “improving public education” have resulted in a generation of graduates who can hardly read, spell, write or count. Billions spent on incarcerating criminals have done little to solve the problem of improving our safety or deterring criminals from a life of crime.
    Megabillions spent on drug enforcement have done little or nothing to “solve” the national drug problem. And vast amounts of body shop money randomly spent on advertising, mail campaigns or telemarketing will do little to bring new business to the average repair facility door.
    Money is simply a symbolic substance that represents stored wealth, the result of productive output. Money could be said to be stored energy. Throwing big money at a problem is like charging full speed at a closed door to knock it down rather than simply unlocking it. The full force of all of that monetary energy will do less than the simple, effortless turning of the right key (or picking the lock). But what is the key?