HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR OPPORTUNITIES
Opportunity simply means a
combination of circumstances or situations that are favourable to you or a chance
that gives you some advantage. People that are hugely successful in their
business, career, profession, and other areas of life make good use of their
opportunities.
Do opportunities
discriminate? No! Are they selective? No! They’re everywhere, everyday, and can
be discovered by just anybody. The irony is that they can come as challenges,
necessities, problems, and other such adverse situation; maybe that’s why many
people often miss them.
But Mary Kay Ash, the
founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, saw her opportunities in obstacles. Her
experience in a male-dominated corporate world was something that could have
hindered some women in life. In her company, she’s was not always taken
seriously; her suggestions, ideas, and opinions were either ignored, jettisoned,
or dismissed outright. She was often told, “you’re thinking like a woman”.
Instead of allowing that to
place a limitation on her performance and determination, she rather regarded
“thinking like a woman” to be an asset instead of a liability or disadvantage.
She saw it as a great opportunity.
Men she trained in sales
would even be promoted over her. When she was denied a promotion, she decided to invest
her life’s savings of $5,000 in Mary Kay Cosmetics, beginning with a storefront
in Dallas. That small opportunity she
seized grew into a multi-milion dollar business. By the time she died in
2001, at age 83, the company had 800,000 independent beauty consultants in 37
countries, and annual sales of over $2 billion.
In life, her prioritization was God first, family second, and work third. She was a best-selling author of
a number of books. The Mary Kay Foundation is committed to ending domestic
violence and cancers affecting women.
I agree with Charles
Kettering that “The opportunities of man are limited only by his
imagination.” These are some of
the ways you can make most of your
opportunities.
First, stop worrying over good opportunities you had missed before: At
one time or the other, you had missed a chance you later discovered that it was
a golden opportunity. One great and comforting
truth is that when one door closes, another opens; but often people look so
long and regretfully upon the closed door that they don’t see the new ones that open for them. Right where you’re, if you look closely, there’re new
opportunities that have opened for you. John
Burroughs says that “The lure of the distant and the difficult is
deceptive. The great opportunity is where
you are.”
Second, good habits and qualities always open doors
of new opportunities. Some of the qualities are: right mind-set, spirit of adventure, self-knowledge, skills, initiative
and drive, courage, resilience, flexibility, etc.
Third, don’t
wait for the “best” opportunities, seize the ones that look ordinary. Orison
Swett Marden pens down these living lines, “Don’t
wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them
great.” Many of the people who really matter today, whether they’re great
scientists, inventors, innovators, millionaires and billionaires, authors, entrepreneurs
and CEOs, and so on, started with a very small opportunity.
Fourth, take
calculated risks. Many opportunities disguise as situations of helping
fellow human beings or providing a solution to some problem people are facing.
Even this has some element of risk. Some inventors were initially resisted,
some innovators were initially misunderstood, but they took calculated risks.
Do you know that in the early 1750s, people hurled trash and insults at the
first man who used an umbrella in British streets?
Are you aware that invention of light bulb, and
aeroplane were not initially welcomed? Do you also know that at the beginning, the
invention of bicycles, automobiles, and even computers/laptops were criticized for various reasons? So examine the ideas for solution you see around you, analyze
them to see their future potentials and prospects, weight the risk involved, and
once you’re convinced that the result is worth the effort, take the plunge.
Fifth, daily refuel
your inspiration: I really love this
thing Harry Loranyne says, “Opportunity
is a state of mind - plus action.”
What keeps you inspired and motivated all the time? Are you today upbeat and tomorrow
downbeat? Are you given to mood swing? Do negative circumstances of life easily
discourage you?
The most successful people in every country have a way
of always keeping their hope alive, always focusing on their goal, despite the
changing and challenging times. The people that have made it to the top in their
callings in life are optimists, they’ve problems also. The description by
Reginald B. Mansell that an optimist is one who makes opportunities
of his difficulties, really fits them. He sees pessimists as people who
make difficulties of their opportunities. Choose where you belong.
After all said and done, don’t live in the fear of
what the future may hold. Rather, live in the anticipation of the new
opportunities that lie ahead.
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