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Greece has been in an economic crisis for a while now. Desperate for solutions and scrambling for cash to pay off their massive debt, politicians have been discussing possible ways out while the people of Greece continue to wait. Could it be that the solution is elsewhere? That the answer to their problems could be solved pretty quickly? Maybe Greece just needs to ask for help. Thom Feeney, a marketing manager from London with no personal connection to Greece, says he has an answer.

Feeney set up a crowdfunding website to raise the amount Greece needs through personal donations from people across the European Union (EU). He believed that if the 503 million people in the EU chip in a few Euros then Greece’s debt would be cleared in no time. Participating Europeans would receive awards such as a Greek vacation for two, Greek wine or Greek feta cheese in return for their kindness.

Was Feeney actually able to raise enough to pay off Greece’s debt? No, but I think there’s a clear lesson here. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers game. People tend to get wrapped up in the little details and often focused on the traditional solutions. They want to see what has worked before and stick to proven models. There is never a cookie cutter answer to get out of your crisis. Google searches can do a lot of good, but fixing your company’s most pressing, time-sensitive problem is frankly out of its domain.

The goal is to get back on the horse and help your company move forward. That requires returning to normalcy as quickly as possible. In the end, whether Feeney finds success or not, he is pointing out what companies (or countries) in a crisis need to understand: crisis solving is about taking creative thought to find solutions that are straightforward to apply.