For Subscribers

When I Spent All My Money on an Apartment, a Leaky Pipe Taught Me an Essential Business Lesson When something is truly your problem, you figure out how to fix it.

By Pav Kudlac Edited by Frances Dodds

This story appears in the September 2021 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

Courtesy of Pav Kudlac

I spent all my money buying my first flat — which meant I had no money to fix my first homeowner's problem. This was 2007, and I was a broke 20-something who'd pushed himself to the limit. I was sleeping on an air mattress because I couldn't afford furniture. Boxes were everywhere. Then I noticed a leaky pipe under the bath, which created a soggy puddle. I couldn't afford a plumber but didn't want to introduce myself to the neighbors by crashing through their wet ceiling.

Related: When I Start to Get Overwhelmed With Work, I Look at This Postcard of Earth.

What to do? I took the bus to a nearby store and talked with the nice chap behind the counter. He explained how to fix it, let me try it out on some junk they had lying around the place, and sold me a pipe cutter and a bit of pipework. I went back home, pushed my head under the bath, and — admittedly, with a little swearing — got the job done.

It taught me a lesson that has since become a bit of a mantra for me: Upgrade your problems.

Having a soggy bathroom floor is a problem — and the day before I bought the place, I would have had a landlord to call.

But once the place was mine, this became my problem. I saw this as progress: You must own your own property to take care of this sort of situation.

Related: 22 Successful Entrepreneurs Share What Inspires Them to Keep Going

Years later, when I founded my professional services company, Ovyo, with my business partner, Adam, this mantra became core to how we approach the business. There have been many problems, and there will continue to be new ones. However, we remember the reason we have these problems — it's because we run our own business! A late-paying customer is a problem, but it's one we encounter only if we have paying customers. A mistake at our Bengaluru office is a problem, but it's one we encounter only because we have offices internationally.

That is why I still keep my pipe cutter on my desk today. It reminds me that, no matter my level of frustration, I am fortunate to face the problems I do. The more I solve them, the more I upgrade to even better ones.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Side Hustle

After a 12-Year-Old's Side Hustle Made Over $4,000 in 1 Day, He and His Dad Grew the Business to Nearly $50,000 a Month: 'It Takes Commitment'

Madden Forrest and his father, Steven, turned their passion for football into a lucrative business.

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Business News

Mattel Signs First-of-Its-Kind Deal With OpenAI to Bring ChatGPT to 'Iconic' Toys

Mattel is also allowing its employees to use ChatGPT Enterprise to help design new products.

Business News

Google, Spotify Down in a Massive Outage Affecting Tens of Thousands. Here's What We Know.

Both Google and Spotify appear to be down for thousands of users.

Growing a Business

Your Customers Are Talking About You — Here's How to Turn Their Feedback Into Profit

Listening to your customer has always been a strategic imperative. With countless options just a click away, consumers are gravitating toward brands that make them feel cherished and involved.

Starting a Business

This 'Dream' Side Hustle Out-Earned Her Corporate Salary in 2 Years — Now It's a $2 Million Business

Here's the exact blueprint she used to leave her W2 job behind and step fully into entrepreneurship.