The End of the Tunnel

It was in the movie " Working Girl," which starred Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford that a business tycoon whose company was being taken over related a story. " At the end of a tunnel, a big truck got stuck and couldn't get out. Many vehicles behind him couldn't move out.  Cops and the driver were running out of solutions, until a small boy spoke, ' why not deflate the tires a bit.' They did and the truck got lower and was able to pass through the tunnel exit.

For many of us, weary travellers in the journeys of our lives, I am sure we have experienced many snags and jams and derails. Thinking of brilliant solutions to emotional, financial and physical situations, a lot of times, lead us to dead ends. But then a simple idea can bring us back to our feet.

Take the story of  Sir Richard Branson , the ultimate poster boy for school dropout turned good.

At 16, Richard Branson, who is dyslexic, left school and, with the help of a friend, founded a magazine for students. He made money by selling advertisements to local businesses and ran the operation out of the crypt inside a local church - the first of many enterprises.

But it wasn't until years later when he was in his late twenties that Sir Branson really started making his mark as the entrepreneur we know and love today.

According to legend, the youngster was on his way to the Virgin Islands to meet a pretty girl, and was impatient to get there.  But he was out of luck - on arrival at the airport he was told flights to the Virgin Islands had been cancelled. 

He decided to charter a private airplane, picked up a small blackboard, wrote 'Virgin Airlines: $29' on it, and sold the remaining seats to other people who had also meant to be on his flight. The idea for Virgin Atlantic was born.

Sir Branson's get-up-and-go attitude is an inspiration to start-ups across the world. It has not always been plain sailing and the billionaire has picked himself up after a number of failures throughout his career. But they have never stopped him.

His Virgin Group now holds more than 200 companies, including the recent Virgin Galactic, a space-tourism company - proving that if you're armed with a can-do mentality, anything is possible.

There are perhaps thousands of other stories which seemed so plain and simple, yet solved many big problems.

Pause. Think.