A lot of people think that people are born successful. For most people, that isn’t true. Most people are not born successful.
Sure, some people are born into a situation; for example, a family business. Others happen to be in the right place at the right time – often when a business is failing and the owners are ready to throw in the towel.
For the most part though, people are successful for one main reason – they see opportunity where others do not.
Here are a few examples to consider.
Example 1: Missed opportunity and the business owner
When a business is failing, most owners look at it as though they have tried their hardest and it just didn’t work out and they move on. Not only are they giving up, but they’re also not spending time trying to figure out why their business failed so that they don’t make the same mistakes again. Maybe it wasn’t the product they sold, but rather the customer service was so bad that it caused customers to not want to shop there. By giving up, not only will the business owner not realize the opportunity they had, but they also won’t learn why their business failed, and will continue to repeat the same mistakes because they didn’t take the time to figure out why.
Example 2: Talented and full of opportunity
While people are not born successful, they can be fortunate to have a little bit of talent. Unfortunately, people who are talented do not always see the forest for the trees. Rather than building on their talents, they make excuses – I don’t have any money, I’m not smart enough, others are already doing what I’m doing and I’ll never be better than they will.
One thing we’re all good at is making excuses. If you stop and look at some of the world’s most recognizable brands like Amazon, Google, or even the launch of the Apple iPhone, you’ll see that opportunity is everywhere. Case in point, in 2007, Apple launched the iPhone even though there were lots of other already successful smartphones on the market, such as the Blackberry. While they were not the first ones there, they saw opportunity to improve something that was already being done and seized it. Today, Apple commands a large percentage of the smartphone market.
The opportunist:
Although you’re not the size of Apple or Amazon or Google, what you do have is opportunity. In fact, with the advent of social media, what this did was it leveled the playing field for business owners. Previously, you had to do a lot of cold-calls or buy billboards or advertisements in phonebooks just to get leads. Today, you can be an opportunist without all of that. All you need is a positive attitude, a plan, and the determination to make whatever you want to do successful.
Remember, opportunity may knock at your door anytime so be ready. Don’t hide, don’t run, don’t make excuses. Instead, start by taking all of the negatives about a situation and use them to grow and learn from. While you may not be the biggest player, stand up for yourself so that when opportunity knocks, you’re prepared and ready to answer the door!
