5 Actions You Must Take To Spot And Take Opportunities

Hello Friends, I have a question for you today – CAN YOU REALLY TELL AN OPPORTUNITY WHEN YOU SEE ONE?

I ask because we believe that we miss the majority of the opportunities that come our way daily.  There is a popular opinion that opportunities always come disguised, which is why many of us miss it.  Opportunities in most cases have a sly habit of slipping in through the back door, and often it comes disguised in the form of problems and failures.  Most personal failures and regrets in life come from missed opportunities.  The irony is that OPPORTUNITY AND PROBLEM are TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN.  You must understand that your successes and opportunities in life, career or business lie in the problems you help others solve. How prepared you are to spot and maximize opportunities is what determines how successful you can ever become in life. You Will Never Fail Nor Miss any Opportunity again If You can follow the 5 essential actions we have listed in the article. They will help you recognize and take advantage of the next opportunity coming your way.

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1.   Prepare for Opportunity

Never allow yourself to be caught unprepared by an opportunity because it’s only the prepared that can recognize and take advantage of an opportunity. There is a popular saying that says, 

Be Prepared and you will be Lucky 

Jesus told a story of ten virgins who went out to meet the bridegroom (opportunity).  Jesus says in the story that five of the virgins were wise (prepared and proactive) and the other five were foolish (unprepared and reactive). The five that were wise showed proactiveness by taking additional oil for their lamp and the foolish five did not and while the bridegroom tarried the oil of the foolish virgins ran out.  They resulted in begging the five proactive virgins for oil but they told them to go and buy for themselves as they did not have enough for them also.  Unfortunately for them, when they went to buy the bridegroom arrived and took the five prepared virgins.  What is the lesson in this story?  The ten virgins were all suitably qualified but five by their choice added an extra touch to their qualification by carrying along extra oil whereas the other five were sufficient in the fact that they were virgins (just qualified).

2.   Build Capacity

As per opportunities coming, surely they will but to the extent you have developed yourself.  As a lady, beyond the Brazilian hair add some stuff. Hollywood and zee world are all fictions and far from reality most times if not all the time.  The handsome rich guys are not always coming around that locality where you have confined yourself to see you and fall in love and then marry you.  You are beautiful and maybe cultured as well but what is it beyond your natural beauty that should make a man want to spend the rest of his life with you as a wife?  And you, tall handsome, ensure that there is a substance to you, beyond your broad chest and good look. Those are the kinds of questions proactive people ask themselves. Improve yourself and be on the offensive. (That is actually my next point). Read and get some new skills. Be good at what you do and more will come.  “Do you see a man diligent and skilful in his business? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men”. Proverbs.  You are now a graduate, thank God for you but do you know that over 600,000 (Six Hundred Thousand) others are also graduating every year in Nigeria alone? Worldwide, they are in their millions and some with mind-blowing skills that you will not stand a chance if you do nothing. What additional skill or competence are you adding to your CV that will set you apart from the rest of the applicants in the labour market with you or that will qualify you for promotion or a raise?  In your business, what are you doing differently? What additional value are you bringing to the table?  When the chips are down, the add-ons will be what will matter.

3.  Be On The Lookout For Opportunities

Let me bring in some contradiction here but I hope you understand. The truth is that opportunities don’t always come looking for you, you look for it. So if you are on the waiting seat; it is time to get your ash up and get moving. Get to put all you have heard and learnt to work. Faith without work will lead to fear and doubt.  Being proactive means thinking ahead, planning ahead and acting ahead in other not to be taken unawares or met unprepared.  One of the most important characteristics of proactively minded people is that they focus and calculated. They know their place, what is important for their goals in life.  They know what is possible and what is not.  They focus on things that are in their control.  For instance, the virgins did not know when the bridegroom would arrive for the marriage as a result the wise ones prepared adequate whereas the foolish one left it to chance. Just the same way it’s useless worrying yourself about the weather since you don’t have direct control over it.  You can only control how you react or prepare to adapt and still be effective whether it rains or shines  Sometimes things that happen to us may not be our fault, but they are always our responsibility, and proactive people realize that and respond differently

4.   Take Your Chances Despite Your Fears

 Let me tell you another bible story, hope you don’t mind. Forgive me; the bible is actually the source of my Intel.  In 2 Kings 7, the bible talks about certain 4 lepers and the famine in Israel.  The Israelites were in the same condition the ‘good’ people of Nigeria have been under the government of President Muhamadu Buhari.  The Bible says that the four lepers had an emergence meeting and resolved to take a BIG risk and move into the enemy camp.  They put in their last card and Heaven backed them up and the story you can read up yourself in 2 Kings chapter 7 (even if you are not a Christian you can just read, it makes for a very good literature)  and the same day, they didn’t only help bring the fulfilment of a prophecy they also became celebrities.   Furthermore, Proactive people don’t say ‘what’s gonna be’s gonna be and what goes up must come down’.  Gravity is not superior to aerodynamics.  What goes up ‘must’ come down used to be true and final until the law of aerodynamics came into force.  Nothing just happens until we make them happen and proactive minded people don’t leave things to chance or wait around for things they want, they make a conscious effort to take the right set of actions and get what they want despite the seeming obstacles. They have the right mindset, plan ahead and take initiative. That is what differentiates the rich (highest achievers) from the poor (under achievers).  You can be one of the highest achievers too: it’s not a magical superpower only some chosen few have. It is open to all as it can be learned and acquired like you would train a muscle or your pet or even children.  Proactive people go the extra mile in preparation.

5.   Be Desirous Enough

Let’s end it with this story of a man whose desire to partner with the great inventor, Thomas Edison. His name was Edwin C. Barnes. The story has it that when Barnes first thought of working with Edison, he did not know Edison secondly he (Barnes) did not have enough money to pay his way to Orange via rail, not airplane. It didn’t come easy but he finally got what he wanted. See Edison’s own account of his meeting with Barnes. I will put the striking points in CAPITAL LETTERS “He stood there before me, looking like an ordinary tramp, but there was something in the expression of his face which conveyed the impression that he was DETERMINED to get what he had come AFTER. I had learned, from years of experience with men, that when a man REALLY DESIRE a thing so DEEPLY that he is willing to STAKE his entire FUTURE on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to WIN. I gave him the OPPORTUNITY he ASKED for because I saw he had made up his MIND to STAND by until he SUCCEEDED. Subsequently, events proved that no mistake was made”.

I challenge you to go over those remarks of Edison about Barnes because those few words are all anyone needs to achieve anything in life, career and business.

 Remain Blessed!

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