Out of the Box Thinking by Konnie Enos

I once saw a post on Facebook about a man interviewing another man for a job. He posed a question for the prospective employee and based on his answer he’d know what kind of man he was.

The question went something like this: It’s a stormy day and you are driving along and see three people waiting in the rain for a bus. One is an old lady is who clearly very ill. One is an old friend of yours who once saved your life and the last one is the person of your dreams. Your car is only a two-seater. Who do you offer a ride to?

Of course the employer expected the young man to say one of three things.

You could offer the ride to the person of your dreams giving you the opportunity to talk, though this choice leaves a poor impression. It’s selfish.

You could give the ride to your old friend. Paying back an old friend at the expense of a sick old lady? Again, this wouldn’t give a good impression, and that’s not even counting missing out on talking to the person of your dreams.

The most logical is to give the sick old lady a ride. This gives the best impression. You’re being altruistic. One could assume your old friend would understand. Maybe he’d put in a good word for you.

I posed this question to my two daughters (at home) and my oldest son.

My son was all for giving his friend the ride. He even gave same sound reasons for this. I really wasn’t surprised considering how close he is to his best friend.

Both daughters were all for giving the old lady the ride. Again they had sound reasons for their answer and honestly I wasn’t all that surprised. After all both girls have health issues and have had to deal with some less than altruistic attitudes.

I had paused the video to ask them so after getting their answers I went back to Facebook to see if it said what the young man’s answer was or it defined what each possible answer said about you. I was understandably curious, mostly because I had come up with a different answer than my children had.

The rest of the video only went on to say that the young man surprised his potential employer with his answer.

Why? Because, he’d apparently come up with the same answer I did.

He thought outside the box.

He gave his car keys to his altruistic friend so he could drive the sick old lady to the hospital while he stayed behind to talk to the person of his dreams.

For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why that wasn’t the logical answer.

There were two seats in the car. The fastest easiest way to help the most people was to give his keys to his altruistic friend. Even if the third person hadn’t been the person of his dreams, it was still the most logical answer. It helped the greatest number of people, and he knew and could trust his friend to do the right thing.

So apparently, thinking things through logically can help you think outside the box.

Or maybe I pulled that off because I know how to solve the riddle of getting the bag of grain, the chicken, and the fox across the river in one small boat that will only hold you and two others, not all three. But you can’t leave the chicken alone with the grain or the fox alone with the chicken.

Considering how often people are now talking about “thinking outside the box” I’m now wondering if the real issue is too few people are actually using their heads and thinking things through logically.

I do realize that some solutions to problems mean coming at them from an unconventional angle, but I don’t see how that can’t be a logical tangent.

I’ve heard of at least two different people who have utilized what is relatively new 3D printing technology in an effort to help a loved one and ended up creating a new company. One that is using those 3D printers to make personalized products. One company makes prosthetics (I saw hands, but they may also do legs) and another makes leg braces. Both do their work to help children.

Two different men, with a bit of knowledge in an unrelated field, had a similar problem and came to an unconventional, yet logical conclusion. The result was they were able to solve their problem and help other people with the same issue.

Solving a problem sure help Alexander Graham Bell. Look were it got us today.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.