In a university class a professor drew a small red dot on the white board, and he asked his students what they saw. Everyone shouted  “a dot.”

The professor asked them to look carefully and answer. Some had the same answer, others said “a red dot.”

He then asked his students if they could not see the white board, the wall on which it was hung, the professor, or the table in front of him.

The students were amazed at their own answer, because yes they could see much more than the red dot. But why were they unable to see it at first?

The professor told them that the reason they couldn’t see everything else at first was due to “focus.” Because he drew a dot, everyone saw the dot. They were unable to see anything else until they had shifted their focus.

When we have difficult people in our lives we focus on the problem or the person causing the problem. The solution is never situated inside but outside the problem. We all deal with difficult people in business and in life, however the key in dealing with these people is to learn to look at the white board and not at the dot.