Episode 007: "Chapter 7 - Opportunity"

Another way that tradition hinders our growth is that it can blind us from opportunities that are being presented to us. Making us feel like we can never catch a break. The reality is, that the opportunity was right there for us to act on, but our tradition kept us from being able to see it.

On one of my dad’s recent trips to visit us, we were driving around and I asked him what were some reasons that he thought might keep people from achieving their own success. One of his answers was opportunity. Interesting, I thought. Did he mean the lack of opportunity?

So we started discussing what we thought was an opportunity. What made an opportunity an actual opportunity?

Was it simply something that happens by chance? You know, the right place at the right time type of thing. After some discussion, we agreed that there was more to it than just that. We decided that there were 3 basic elements to opportunity with chance being one of them.

These were our 3 elements:

1. The opportunity presenting itself (chance).

2. Recognizing the opportunity presented.

3. Being prepared to act on that opportunity.

I believe these are all of equal importance. Obviously you need the opportunity to present itself but if you don’t recognize it, it might as well have never been there. The same goes for being prepared for it. If it presents itself, you recognize it but are not prepared for it, you can’t act on it. That would be a missed opportunity.

For example, a few years ago I sat in the same room and even at the same table as a friend of mine at one of the most amazing charitable events I have ever witnessed. Since then, he has hosted multiple of these same events. Bringing in 10’s of $1,000s in donations to his local community.

We both saw and recognized that same opportunity at exactly the same time. The difference was… He was prepared for it and I wasn’t. By possessing ALL 3 elements of opportunity he was able to take advantage of it.

I know we all have different upbringings, journeys and life paths. And no, I am not that naive to believe that everyone will get the same opportunities or even the same amount of them. Some may get better opportunities than others and some more frequent than others. But I do believe we all get them. It just depends on if we can recognize them and are prepared to act on them.