Saturday, December 2, 1995

Be ready for opportunity

Every day presents new opportunities for everyone. In the vast majority of cases, these opportunities are wasted. They fly right on by, never acted upon by those who find them. Those few people who achieve greatness are the ones who are prepared for the opportunities that come their way.

How do you prepare yourself for opportunity? The first thing that comes to mind of most people is money. Then there’s education, training, experience, friends in high places. These things can help. They are, however, not essential. Nor are they enough, in and of themselves.

In his book, Compassionate Capitalism, Amway co-founder Rich DeVoss says:

"...what makes you ready to recognize and to reach out for the golden ring when it suddenly appears is something mysterious, something powerful inside your heart and head that says, ’I can do it and I will.’"

That attitude comes, not from having education or having money or having a lot of contacts, but from a confident belief in yourself, a mind that’s open to new possibilities, a willingness to do whatever it takes to make something happen. There are plenty of intelligent, highly-educated people with money and connections who never go anywhere in life. You can have almost “everything” going for you, and yet without the right attitude, without the willingness and confidence to dive right in, opportunities will pass you by, one after another.

The best opportunities are not the ones that you look for, they’re the ones you work for. Many people waste a lot of time “looking” for the “perfect” opportunity. They want to put themselves in the right place at the right time, and let the opportunity do all the work. This rarely happens.

Opportunity is not a free ride. There is opportunity in every apple seed. With the right nurturing the seed will become a tree and will bear an endless supply of fruit. But nothing will happen if you just grab the seed and do nothing else with it. You may very well have gotten “into” it at the beginning of its “momentum growth phase". Nevertheless, it will bear no fruit without your hard work and persistence.

Being ready for opportunity means being willing and able to do whatever it takes to make something of the opportunity.

— Ralph Marston

Resolution Time       Make people feel needed

Copyright ©1995 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All Rights Reserved. The Daily Motivator is provided for your personal, non-commercial use only. Other than personal sharing, please do not re-distribute without permission.