Create Opportunity
Impacts: Mind, Work, Money, Community, Time
“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.” – Francis Bacon
“When the pupil is ready to learn, a teacher will appear.” – Zen proverb
I’m a true believer in the idea that we make our own opportunities. But I’d also say that opportunities expand at an exponential rate. The inverse is also true; when opportunities are sparse creating new opportunities is extremely difficult.
This is why you hear those of us who have achieved a certain level of success saying things like you make your own opportunities. What you don’t hear most successful people say is that it is really hard to get started, but you’ll hear everyone say that if you persevere you will succeed and anything is possible. This is most definitely true, getting started is the hardest part.
Another simple truth is that opportunities come from connections with other people. They don’t come out of thin air. Building quality authentic relationships with other people is the secret sauce to creating opportunities. Also keep in mind that the number of connections is secondary to the quality of relationships. You can also think of it like this, it’s not how many people you know but who you know.
Now that particular idea might leave a bad taste in your mouth because it sounds like how the good-old-boys-club works and in fact it is how their club works. But it works for them because it can work for everyone. The community you build around yourself will the source of the opportunities you make. If you choose to get and MBA and climb the ladders in the corporate world the opportunities you make will come from those people higher on the ladders. If you choose to connect with other groups of people you will make a different set of opportunities.
Take Action
- Spend more time with more people online and in person.
- Build friendships and relationships on trust.
- Be loyal.
- Be authentic and honest.
- Be yourself.
- Carefully think through your thoughts and put them out there.
- Always listen to new ideas and remain open.
