Opportunity

Opportunity is something we often seek and sometimes miss even though it might’ve bitten us on the nose if it wished, because we were so close to finding it.  Napoleon Hill, a famous writer and philosopher defined it like this:

Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.

How many times might we have been close to an opportunity but lost out when we failed to take that next step that would’ve led us to the goal line’?  It is easy to become discouraged, and those temporary defeats can become permanent defeats if we but permit them to do so.

Each of us, if we’re being honest with ourselves, has missed out on opportunities simply because we didn’t take that next step.

Instead, we succumbed to the feeling that we were on the wrong road, or pursuing the wrong position, or simply were not right for that job that we were offered.

Or, we might’ve seen the opportunity and been overwhelmed by it, by the magnitude of what it might represent to us.  We might’ve questioned whether or not we had what it would take to seize upon that opportunity.  Maybe we were simply scared that we might fail and that we’d be embarrassed to have to admit that to our loved ones, or to our manager or simply to ourselves.

We are each wired a bit differently and that is a very good thing.  Too many of me would not be good for anyone or for any company.  One of me doing his or her very best, however, might just be that final piece that was necessary to our employer’s success, and the success that extra effort brought might be wonderful for us since it was through our effort the opportunity was seized.

We began this with the definition supplied to us by Napoleon Hill.  He reminded us that opportunities can seem like temporary defeats or some form of misfortune we have caused, when we simply need to take a deep breath and persevere.

The next step or the next call or the next interview may well prove to have been the solution that opened the door to that opportunity that was eluding us.

So what does Napoleon Hill know about my business or my job?  Nothing.  What Napoleon Hill knew about was each of us and how we sometimes fail to take that last step, make that last call, set up that last appointment which was the key to opening the door to that opportunity that we’d have otherwise missed.

Al Campbell