Quote of the Day: Charles F. Kettering on Daily Inspiration

There is a specific kind of freedom that arrives when the fog finally lifts, when the thing you’ve been wrestling with all week suddenly becomes obvious, almost laughably so. Your shoulders drop. Your mind gets quiet. And you can’t unsee the next step. In that instant, a “hard problem” doesn’t disappear; it simply changes categories. It becomes workable. “The only difference between a problem and a solution is that people understand the solution.”

This is a reminder that many frustrations aren’t brick walls; they’re locked doors, waiting for the right key of understanding. When you label something a problem, you’re often describing your current viewpoint: incomplete information, unclear constraints, or an untested assumption. A solution is the same reality, seen with sharper edges.

Practically, this shifts your job from “push harder” to “learn better.” Ask: What don’t I understand yet? What would make this easy? Who has solved something similar? Understanding grows through small actions, writing the problem in one sentence, mapping causes instead of symptoms, running a tiny experiment, or explaining it to someone else until the gaps reveal themselves. That’s how leadership works in real life: not by having every answer, but by upgrading clarity until the team can move.

Charles F. Kettering earned the right to say this. He helped invent the electric starter that changed everyday driving and later served as Vice President of General Motors, living at the intersection of curiosity, engineering, and practical progress.

Today, pick one nagging issue and do one clarifying move: write three things you know, three things you don’t, and the smallest test you can run in 15 minutes to learn more. Understanding compounds, and with it, resilience becomes less a trait you’re born with and more a skill you practice, go in peace, and keep turning puzzles into paths.