Chapter 38 Opportunities are Everywhere.
Opportunities are everywhere, in the air, under the seas, on the land and beneath the earth too! Just cruise through the cities, there are businesses to be created and launched... buildings waiting to be painted. Drive into the country, there are miles of land for asparagus, tree-planting and cut-flowers... In Hong Kong, I walked into a bird shop and learned that people had been trapping grass-hoppers and breeding meal-worms, which were exported or fed to local pets daily, by the thousands! Others make donuts, umbrellas, plastic flowers; grow Bonsais, sell sizzling kebabs, or trade in valuable antiques.
In the Asian region, heaps of delicious „wood -ear fungi, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, sea weeds, nuts, fruits and fern-vegetables are harvested from the wild. They run into millions of dollars a year. A friend of mine employs workers to collect and export jelly-fish and shark-fins to Japan, worth thousands of dollars a week! Over the years, I have heard of numerous created or seized opportunities, which led to wealth. There are too many examples to be listed here. There were builders, for example, who offered to develop barren lands for old folks, in return for a share of the shops and offices to be built. Job-seekers offered to work without pay, in return for experience and the chance for permanent positions. Others started buying scrap metals „for a song long ago and accumulated riches. „There exist limitless opportunities in every industry. Charles Kettering, president of GM Research Corporation, stated, „Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier. Opportunities are everywhere.
The search and seizure of opportunities are extremely important. The rich and famous everywhere are harping and drumming on this, as you will see in this chapter. They concluded that the capture of opportunities is a big ingredient of success. You ignore this at your peril and poverty! J. P. Getty, the prominent billionaireindustrialist taught us: ‘The far-sighted businessman realises that he can render the greatest commercial service by taking advantage of every opportunity.’ And there are opportunities everywhere for creating new business, even entire new industries, and for building and expanding old ones. Sometimes, a casual remark from someone can spark an inspiration, or the onset of a windfall! Be vigilant, and keep a constant watch.
I think anyone who maintains initiative, alertness and thoughtfulness should stumble onto something sooner or later. Regine, the influential night-club magnate asserted: „If you wait for things to happen by themselves...nothing will happen. You have to be on the ball, seek out events, stir people up. To find diamonds, you have to turn over a lot of stones...You have to make things work, so that history becomes your destiny. The great Francis Bacon noted, „A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. Ziglar, the success guru said, „Luck is the sense to recognise an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it.
Few of us pause to notice with new eyes the endless marvels and possibilities, even in our daily lives. Would you see an opportunity in a 116-ton boulder? After a community spent US$1,000,000 to remove the dangerous piece of rock? Well, as told in Denis Waitleys book The Winner’s Edge, Mr Brett a sculptor did, in 1979 at Malibu, California! He paid US$100 for it and carved it into a giant masterpiece monument, and earned a US$1 million bonanza! You see, a different set of eyes and attitude can make heaven of hell, diamond of dirt!
Most great achievements were initially considered impossible, they were breaks unnoticed. The opportunities are here, right where you are standing. If you keep looking far away, by the time you reach the greener pastures you will be too old and tired to climb the fence! This reminds me of the story of a farmer who sold his farm and went everywhere for most of his life, prospecting for diamonds; only to learn finally that the richest diamond mine was found under the farm he had sold! Little wonder that experts are reminding us to prosper in our own acre of diamonds. Theodore Roosevelt told us, ‘Do what you can, with what you have, with where you are.’ J. Oppenheim remarked, ‘The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise man grows it under his feet.’ Sometimes opportunity knocks on the front door when we are in the backyard looking for it. Then there are others who left the dock, just before the ship came in!
A funny paradox of opportunities is that they often sprang from problems and difficulties! Many achievers tripped on a new idea or a great pathway in times of hardship. The old saying ‘The darkest hour is before dawn is so true.’ Napoleon Hill, the renowned success teacher said, ‘Opportunity has the sly habit of slipping in the back door, and often it comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.’ Failures are only intermediate results; problems are only hidden opportunities for solutions and improvements. Hence, setbacks create solutions and even new products in the market. Ann Landers, the advicecolumnist, reminded us that, „Good opportunities are often disguised as hard labour, that is why so few people recognise them.
The president of Remington Corporation, Victor Kiam observed: „Entrepreneurs are those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity, and are able to turn both to their advantage. Their willingness to seize initiative sets them apart from their contemporaries...they make things happen. J. P. Getty viewed this clearly: „The individual who is able to perceive a glimmer of possibility in a situation that seems, at first glance, full of insurmountable obstacles, is the one who is most likely to reap the greatest benefits. L. P. Jacks aptly commented on this situation, 'The pessimist finds difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist finds opportunity in every difficulty. What a clever piece of remark!
They say, „Never pass a temptation lightly by, it may never occur again. Opportunities come but they do not linger, and in this competitive world someone will snatch it. Have you never felt a sudden impulse to do something? Then for some reason you paused and procrastinated, and soon the chance was gone forever. A competitor quickly clinched what you fumbled! I have experienced this myself. Hesitation is often the graveyard of opportunities.
This teaches us too that timing is crucial in our lives. Doing something you want to do, and finding that the occasion is perfectly right, is the birth of your good luck and success. This is where preparation is powerful as it meets opportunity. Estee Lauder, the founder of the world-class cosmetics company pointed out: „In every life there is a moment - an event or realisation - that changes life irrevocably. One must be able to recognise the moment and seize it without delay. Ecclesiastes, a philosopher wrote 2,600 years ago: „There is a season and time to every purpose under heaven. A time to tend, and a time to sow. Our brilliant William Shakespeare described it better: „There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. You can rest assured, that your chance will arrive sooner or later to empower and enrich you. „Theres nothing more powerful in the world than an idea whose time has come. Said Mr. Red Motley.
If you have the slightest doubt about your future share of „opening sesames, one of the worlds riches man J. P. Getty assures you: „Sooner or later, every business man has his big opportunities... He must be able to notice them when they present themselves, and he must also possess the imagination, ability and willingness to work hard the elements needed to make the most of his opportunities. Provide the circumstances and preparation, one day, opportunity will come knocking.
Here are good tips for you:
1. Keep your mind and eyes open for new ideas, products, variations, improvements or even wishful thinking. There is always another Garfield or Rubiks Cube waiting to be discovered.
2. Dont overlook any possibility, right in your kitchen, or office. Is there a problem to be solved, a product to ease hardship? Remember, a glimmer or casual remark has led to great things.
3. Starve and shrink your problems; but feed and swell your opportunities. Go ahead and keep your eyes alert, and your brain clicking all the time!
"Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises." - Demosthenes, Greek statesman and orator.
"Thorough preparation makes its own luck." - Joe Poyer.
"Problems are only opportunities with thorns on them." - H. Miller.
"We find only the world we look for." - Henry D. Thoreau.
"Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think." - Ayn Rand.
"To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life." - Samuel Johnson.