It is no secret that stuff happens, things can go wrong, and sooner or later, you are going to find yourself up that old creek without a paddle. Plan on it, my friend. What's worse, the only way out will be up that thousand foot cliff you were prepared to jump off the top of when you took those flying lessons.

"But Simon," you say, "I cannot solve a problem I did not know about. I new there was a chance I might lose my paddle when I started up that creek; but that cliff, well, it was just suddenly there and I certainly had not planned on that. Life just moved that monster squarely into the path to my success and that is the end of that."

Life surely does have a way of biting you on the backside when you are least expecting it. Some days you get the bear and some days the bear gets you; and that cliff is definitely the bear that is getting you today. Life can undeniably be a bear now and then, a thousand foot monster standing between you and success, an obstacle so wide you cannot see its edges, so high you cannot see its top. It is totally eclipsing your future. …

Coach knows. He has been there before. You are rightfully discouraged. You are totally bummed-out and definitely not in any mood for another one of Simon's little rules; but try this one anyway. You never know. It might be just what the doctor ordered.

•You cannot come up with a creative solution until you have creatively defined the problem.

Start by asking, "If this is not an insurmountable barrier to my success, then what is it?"

The answer is it is a problem to be solved. Since a problem is the difference between how things are and how you want them to be, your challenge is defining and then reducing the difference. Your problem is not the thousand foot cliff. What is it, then?

•"I want to reach my goals."

•"I cannot paddle on up the creek since I am without a paddle."

•"There is a thousand foot cliff between me and success."

"Okay, Simon" you say, "There is my problem. I am completely stymied."

No, a good try but you do not quite get it yet. Your problem is you want to reach your goals and have not yet figured out how. You tried paddling your own canoe and it did not work out quite the way you had expected. Coach will not chastise you for not having a healthy skepticism for what might go wrong nor for not knowing what you would do if it did not work out; but you are well-served to consider Simon's little rules the next time you head up the creek.

•You want to reach your goals.

•You do not know how to get there from where you are.

•Your problem is reducing the difference between what you know and what you need to know to reach your goals.

There you go. You have one of those frustrating, nasty knowledge deficits. Your internal resources have left you a little short for the moment. What to do? Either dig around in your internal resource bank to see if you can come up with something or call someone who can give you a knowledge opportunity.

"What do you mean, call someone? Did you forget I am up a creek without a paddle? How do you expect me to call someone from here?"

Use your cellular phone. Surely you did not go up that creek by yourself without your cellular phone, did you? You said you took a chance on losing your paddle; so you did at least plan on how you would call for help if it actually happened, didn't you? You do understand it is possible to get yourself so far into the muck it would even test a success super-star to get out, don't you?

You are right. Even Simon needs to be reminded of his own little rules now and again. You can only start from where you are with what you have; and you have a serious problem to solve.

If Simon were a certified success guru instead of someo...