Opportunity only knocks once; not!

I recently attended a business opportunity meeting, where the presenter was sharing with us amongst the greatest thing about the opportunity was the timing. And then he went on to mention that opportunity only knocks once. I cannot disagree more.

If you were like me, you must have heard this phrase before and it's probably told to you either by someone who loves you or someone who wants to sell you something. There are two parts to this phrase and let us take a closer look at it one at a time.

Some of us probably heard that in order to be successful, you just need to be at the right place at the right time three times in your life. That is another load of garbage. Should you believe that opportunity only knocks once; you not only believe that opportunities are in control of you and not the other way round. Also, if you'd believe it to be true, it means you should be looking out for opportunities.

The fundamental flaw with this perspective puts you in a situation where you force fit yourself into the opportunity. Let me ask you this, if you saw a $50 bill on the floor, would you keep it? Probably yes, probably not. But if you knew that $50 bill dropped out of the pocket of an elderly ladt, would you keep it? Chances are you will not. Now, was that not an opportunity to have an extra $50 in your pocket? Yes. Was it there staring at you in the face? Yes. So why won't you keep it? I think for most people it is just not the right thing to do. This is pretty direct.

Now, what happens when its a situation where you are really in dire need of a job or an opportunity to let you make some decent money. Except you are not quite sure if the product works or it requires you to persuade someone to part with a large sum of money for something you felt quite certain that its priced too high? Now this becomes a little less clear and its merits become debatable. Would you accept the offer or would you pass?

What's your choice?

My believe is it depends on how you view this as an opportunity. If you, like some people, view this opportunity as a once-in-a-lifetime chance, you'd might jump on it. That said, you become controlled by the opportunity and hence surrender your destiny to this so-called opportunity. On the other hand, if you take the view that you are able to create opportunities for yourself, you may take another look to weigh the consequences and see if the opportunity is in line with your core values. At the end of the day, you might find that this opportunity fits hand-in-glove and you grab it. Or you might find there are some issues that are in conflict with your values and let it pass.

So, some of you might say, well not everyone is capable of creating opportunities for themselves, that's why some ends up more successful than others. Well, if you have nodded in agreement, you have just succumb yourself to the principle of limiting beliefs. Think about all those people who were not only not offered opportunities but had opportunities denied from them. People like Anne Sullivan who was not only not given the chance to go to school, but was denied from attending one. And everyone around her told her they won't let her.

Or Viktor Frankl who was thrown into a concentration camp and was not just denied of survival but had survival literally taken away from him. How did these two individuals who were not only denied of almost all opportunities but also being in a disadvantage position to be able to create the opportunities for themselves and even subsequently inspired many others after them? What sets them apart from you or me? I believe fundamentally it was the choices that they need to make.

If Anne Sullivan didn't go to school, she'd probably die of some infectious diseases that killed many other children. If Viktor Frankl didn't dived into the pile of corpes, he would have been gased or tortured to death by the Nazis. The choices they made allow them to not just look for opportunities but to create them.

So, the point here is simply this, to quote Sumner Redstone, CEO of Viacom from his Commencement Keynote Address to MBA Graduates Kellogg School of Management in 2002; “Opportunities never knocks”. You need to create them if you want to succeed. If you just simply look for opportunities, it may sometimes disguise itself in a form that cause you to miss it altogether. Besides if you believed that opportunity only knocks once, it means that once this opportunity is exploited, you will need to wait a while before something like this comes around again; and you'd still might miss. So meanwhile you should just settle for a mediore life.

Additionally, holding the perspective that opportunity only knocks once means they are rare; they are scarce. In short, it's limited in supply so if you don't take it someone else will. That is true if you believe that you can only look for opportunities and not create them, because you are just not smart enough, you just don't have enough capital, you just don't have the time, blah, blah, blah.

Once you accept the perspective of abundance you will be able to not just spot, but create opportunities. Just to use an analogy, you not being able to spot opportunities or spot them too late means it is reactive. To be proactive you got to be able to keep a look out for those 'rare' opportunities. Key point here is 'rare'. If you can anticipate the opportunities that are coming up, or trend spotting if you like, you ready yourself in anticipation of the opportunities.

Sometimes you are spot on, sometimes you couldn't feel more lousy than the man who predicted the end of the world every year only to have the day past without any commotion. However, when you are able to be creative and create opportunities, then your only limit is your imagination.

So, remember that opportunity never knocks. You need to create them. And you don't need an MBA to do that. All you need, first as an important pre-requisite is to hold the perspective of abundance.