Why you must jump at opportunity
Many people do not make decisions when opportunities arise because they have deceived themselves into believing that the opportunities will always be there. This is one of the great catalysts of procrastination – the deception that the conditions will remain the same tomorrow.
The opportunity of a lifetime must always be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity. Every dream has a shelf life. Every idea has a shelf life, and in fact, every life has a shelf life.
What is the shelf life of your current life? What is the sell-by date of your current dream or the opportunity before you? If you do not proactively take charge and get into the driver’s seat of your life, you will be taken to a place that you never planned to go.
A Nigerian proverb says that no one can know where your back is itching like you do. Similarly, no one knows the dream in your heart like you do.
If you do not act on the chance before you today, you will wake up tomorrow thinking that it is still there, only to realise it was only for a moment. It then gets doubly painful when you see someone else take the opportunity you procrastinated about and make something wonderful out of it.
We were having this discussion in my office in the course of the week, and one of my colleagues, Cynthia, said something that totally got me thinking. She is a very high performer, and what she said explained a lot about her.
She said that instead of sitting down and spending much time analysing opportunities, it is better to act on them fast and then make changes slowly.
Progress is a function of acting on decisions, not a function of speculation and too much analysis.
If two hungry lions see an antelope that is within reach and decide to go for it, the decision to go will not fill their stomachs. It is the action that does.
A decision you make but do not act upon was never made. The quality of life is determined by the quality of the decisions we act on.
What are you afraid of? The cure for fear is confrontation. You must confront your greatest fears.
Many fears develop because of past experiences or negative news of or from other people. This kills action. Don’t let your past rob you of your future.
One of the saddest stories I have heard of in recent times is that of a gentleman named Ron Wayne. He lives in a mobile home in Nevada, and sells stamps and lives off social security cheques. Is that how he was destined to live or is that how he chose to live? You decide.
Ron was a co-founder of Apple with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. However, a few days after they incorporated the company, he developed cold feet because he had failed in business before. He was scared that if it did not work, he would lose whatever he had.
He therefore sold his 10 per cent stake of the company to his partners for a total of $2,300, according to the Book, Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson.
On August 20, 2012, Apple’s value rose to a world-record $624 billion.
Had Ron not allowed fear to get the better of him, he would have been a multi-billionaire and indeed one of the wealthiest people in the world today.
I wonder how many other people are throwing away a perfect future because of an imperfect past. They are breathing in the present but living in the past. Their future is being shaped by their past or by the negative examples around them.
When you want to buy a car, you go to the showroom and not to the yard where wrecked cars are. You get inspired by the best. The presence of wrecked cars never stops your dream of owning a car.
You do not need to look for all the reasons why you shouldn’t make a decision and act today. You need to locate just one good enough reason to act and then go on and act fast, and, as Cynthia has taught me, make the necessary changes slowly.
Have a great weekend!
