There's opportunity in every crisis

Adversity gives us opportunities to grow. And we usually get what we work for. If we have problems and overcome them, we grow tall in character. — J. Willard Marriott Sr.

You might already have heard of this, that the chinese character for danger has the word opportunity in it. Personally, I was in an extremely precarious situation in 2001 where an offer to work with a friend turned out horribly wrong.

There were lots of finger-pointing, character assassination, fear, intimidation, and even potential lengthy law suits coming at me after I have decided to leave the company. I was at a lost as to what I'm supposed to do.

Then, how it helped me overcome all of that, and more, was to use a metaphor. My choice of a metaphor was that of a soldier. And it goes something like this.

Imagine a soldier and his platoon mates engaged in a fire battle with the enemy. All his other platoon mates are dead. He's down to his last magazine of ammunition. He is in a fox-hole. At this moment, the enemy doesn't know he is there. He has two options.

They are, (i) To stay put and wait till the enemy comes close enough. With his remaining ammunition, he will put up his last fight. (ii) To get out of the fox-hole, run tactically towards his enemy. And shoot some along the way.

If he chose option (i), he may end up dying of hunger and cold in the fox-hole or the enemy may outnumber him and kill him. If he chose option (ii), he may end up dying from the exchange of fire as he marches towards the enemy. So it looks like either way, he'll be dead. And being a soldier, its an honour to die fighting the enemy courageously rather than hiding in the fox-hole and hoping the enemy will not find him but die instead of hunger or from enemy's ambush.

Given that as the context of the metaphor, I then asked myself which choice should I make. It seems like either way, I'll die. But if I submit to the crisis, and pray for the storm to be over, and even if I survive, I will not be able to look myself in the mirror with integrity.

So, after consulting with a friend (thank you Teck!), I decided to move on and do what I need to do. And I must say that thank you to the forces that guided me through the last few years; I have managed to get out of the precarious situation and start all over again. At least, I can look myself in the mirror with integrity.

And that was what led me to write my own quote, which I'll like to share it with you here:

Life is full of risks, but until you turn them into opportunities, they will always remain uncertain. — Melvyn Tan