Problem solving problems

I am a problem solver. When I see a problem that I can fix I fix it. Which makes it really frustrating for me when people won't let me solve their problem.

Here is an example I hit in database design all the time. People want their next version of software to have all these amazing new features but they don't want to change the database design to properly support these amazing new features. Sometimes you can support a new feature by just adding a few new tables to a database, other times you have to redesign the entire database because the feature you are adding is so fundamental. But that takes time and adds risk to a project so they want you to support the new feature without redesigning the entire database, even if that is impossible.

A non-database example is when you give the people the solution to the problem but they reject it because they don't understand it or the solution is too different from what they think the solution should be. This is frustrating because I have given them the answer and I know it is right, but the problem continues because I can't convince them. If they would just try my answer they would see that it works, but they won't even do that.

To a problem solver the only thing more frustrating than a problem you can't solve is a problem you have a solution to but you aren't allowed to implement the solution.