Have you ever had an experience where you looked back and realized that you missed an opportunity that you really should have taken? Just think of Nolan Bushnell. He was asked to invest $50,000 of seed money into a new company that was starting out in a fledgling industry. While he knew one of the principal founders of the company, and perhaps even saw the potential, it was a risky venture. Whatever his reasons for turning down the opportunity to invest, I’m sure he later regretted not putting his money into Steve Jobs, and becoming a one-third owner of Apple, a company that in 2018 was valued at $945 billion.
Here are 4 ways to stop missing good opportunities.
- Understand the anatomy of an opportunity.
- Understand why opportunities are often missed.
- Evaluate the consequences of a potentially missed opportunity.
- Learn keys to not missing out.
Your experience with a missed opportunity may not create as acute a pain as a story like that of Nolan Bushnell, but it may still be enough to make you shake your head and think, “If I had only…” Many people would say that the biggest regrets at the end of life are not about things they did, but rather, they are regrets about things they wish they had done. They are the missed moments, the lost time with family, the love not given a chance, the adventure not taken, the risk not pursued, the dream left by the wayside, all the opportunities that came, and then passed them by.
While opportunities like an investment into a start-up company like Apple Corporation don’t come along every day, a wide variety of opportunities can come your way a lot more frequently than most people think. The real tragedy of missed opportunities is multi-faceted. First, people often don’t recognize it when there is an actual opportunity right in front of them. How tragic to live a life so self-absorbed, or so oblivious to how things are moving around you, that you don’t realize, even when there is a virtual bar of gold being handed to you in the form of an opportunity. Often, that is because opportunities are more subtle in their presentation. They may even look like more work than they are worth, or they may look just plain worthless on the surface. Therefore, you must dissect what’s in front of you in order to accurately assess its value.
The Anatomy of an Opportunity
Opportunities require risk.
The risk may be small or great, but it will be required. The reason is that risks don’t typically tell you their outcome at the start. For you to seize an opportunity, you have to be ready to absorb the risk. You may have an expectation of what will happen as a result of you pursuing an opportunity, but there are never any guarantees.
- The risk may come in form of some change that it is required of you. Change is always risk because it represents the unknown.
- The risk may be monetary, and require you risking some level of felt security for the sake of a potentially larger gain.
- The risk may be in the form of work. You may need to do what feels like extra work in the pursuit of a learning experience or the chance to work with someone who could help you move further ahead in your career.
Opportunities do not come marked on neon signs.
Even though someone might try to sell you on an “opportunity of a lifetime,” (when it may or may not be), the majority of real opportunities in your life don’t advertise themselves that way. Many opportunities may look so insignificant that you don’t realize the repercussions of passing them by. Think, for example, of the boss that offers you a special project that you can choose to do or not do. It may be a small project, that will require some extra work from you, and will not increase your current compensation. It doesn’t look like an opportunity. It just looks like more work. Perhaps you don’t find it interesting, and so you choose to decline from doing it. Here is where the tragedy of the missed opportunity can come into play. What you may not have considered in your decision is why your boss is presenting this project to you. Most good leaders will present “tests” to their people, small opportunities for people to prove themselves. The potential consequence to turning down the project is two-fold. First, you did not complete that level of “testing” to show your boss what you are capable of (and to get the experience thereof), and therefore, your boss may not think you are ready for anything bigger. Secondly, what you did demonstrate to your boss in turning down this opportunity may be a lack of motivation, and so why would he or she think that you would be motivated for growth into other positions? You may have just tied yourself to your current job permanently.
Opportunities are usually time sensitive.
Another tragedy of missed opportunities is when a person recognizes an opportunity is before them, but they don’t act on it quickly, and it has the potential to still pass by. Most opportunities come with an expiration date, so taking too much time in your evaluation of what’s in front of you could actually cause you to miss out all together. For example, if it’s a financial investment, you have to realize that the stock market is always moving, and sometimes, it can move fast. If you are at an optimal place to buy stock in a company, but choose to wait longer, by tomorrow, the price may have already jumped significantly. Timing matters. In a similar example, a business may have an opportunity to introduce a new product to the marketplace, but if they wait, some other company may enter the market with a similar product and take a large portion of the market share just by being the first to jump in. Still more, a product has a shelf life. You can have a good product, but if you don’t enter the market at the right time, you could miss the most lucrative window. As an example, it is probably ill advised to start selling Blu-Ray discs in this time of streaming video services. You would be about 10 years too late. Opportunities must be taken when they are presented.
Opportunities taken, can lead to more opportunities.
Opportunities are like breeding rabbits. When you decide to take advantage of one, it can lead to another, and another, and another. Each opportunity becomes a stepping stone to the next. This is an often unexpected advantage to taking an opportunity. You never know where one pursued opportunity is going to lead next. The sad thing is that when you miss one opportunity, you don’t know how many others you may have also missed.
Why Opportunities Are Often Missed
Often, the biggest thing keeping people from following through on doing things, and seizing opportunities when the moment is upon them, is fear. It is fear of the risk. It is fear of the unknown. It is fear of misunderstanding or misreading the situation. It is fear of failure. It is fear of success. It is fear of what others will think. It is fear of the work involved. It is fear of commitment. It is fear of change. It is fear of __ (you fill in the blank). Fear will always limit your thinking, and thereby limit your behavior. Fear will keep you from stepping into the unknown, and into your destiny.
Fear disguises itself as wisdom.
Often, a person will say that they are being “wise” by not taking this or that risk, when in reality, they don’t want to admit their own fear. There is certainly a place for seeking out wisdom in evaluation of an opportunity / risk, and I would absolutely advise that, but be careful of allowing fear to win out, if that is your true motivation. Learn to recognize when fear is operating in your thinking, and find the courage to overcome it when there is a worthwhile opportunity before you.
Consequences of Missed Opportunities
Aside from the potential for regret at the end of your life, many of the consequences of a missed opportunity will never been realized, just as the rewards of the risk will not be realized. You just won’t see them. Again, in this, we see the tragedy of the missed opportunity. It is the unforeseen and unrecognized consequences that you reap for the opportunity that you passed by – consequences that you may not even connect to the original opportunity.
You limit yourself from more than just one opportunity.
To sum it up, opportunities breed more opportunities, but missed opportunities will limit further opportunities. When you block yourself from one, you will often inadvertently block yourself from others. You must never forget that people are always watching you – what you do and what you don’t do. People are attracted to the risk-takers, the forward-thinkers, and the opportunity-grabbers. When they see you doing these things, they will want to come near you, and they will bring other resources and opportunities with them. Conversely, when they see you shy away from things, they will often assume that you won’t want to take advantage of an opportunity that they may have otherwise presented. This is common in leadership. Leaders will watch their people, even paying attention to how they approach their personal lives, in order to assess a person’s readiness for new challenges and opportunities. Everything that you do may be evaluated in determination of whether or not you will get the shot at something greater.
How to Avoid the Missed Opportunity
Be aware that I am not a proponent of saying, “Yes” indiscriminately to everything that comes your way. Careful consideration should be made of each opportunity presented to you. I do generally try to lean on the side of “Yes,” however, in order to help keep hidden fears at bay. I don’t want to inadvertently limit myself, and miss an opportunity, because of a quick “No” that was, in reality, a result of a subconscious fear. The simple stance of “leaning into” the possibilities is a good starting point to not missing valuable opportunities.
Remember that opportunities can sometimes come in “disguise.” In fact, assume it. Therefore, take the time to evaluate what is before you very carefully, even if it doesn’t initially seem like an opportunity. I use several criteria in making this evaluation.
Think about who the person is that is bringing this opportunity to you.
I try to always try to look closely at the person who is offering whatever it is first. If it is a leader, or someone who has demonstrated that they are further ahead in a given area than I am, I am more likely to want to pursue it, simply because those who have “gone before” are more likely to offer a pathway for my growth than those who are the same level as I am.
I also try to evaluate the integrity and character of the person or organization to the best of my ability. I want to pursue opportunities with people and organizations that I feel that I can trust. I believe there is a higher likelihood of getting a good outcome from a given pursuit in that case. This is particularly important if the opportunity requires a financial investment. I don’t want my money squandered away by people who lack integrity in their business dealings, or who are likely to just be foolish in their use of the investment.
Consider the breadth of impact of pursuing the given opportunity.
If something is presented to me that is beyond what I have done before, will offer additional growth (personally or financially), or will cause me to be recognized by more people, putting me on a bigger “stage,” I am likely to want to pursue it. That does not mean, however, that I would never pursue things that I have already done, or that are on the same level as (or possibly below) my current status. Remember, you are always being watched. Sometimes, doing something that may, on the surface, look to be of no benefit, or even to someone else’s benefit, more than it is to your own, is advantageous in other ways. Since opportunity breeds opportunity, the simple, status quo something you do now, can lead to something much greater later. You never know who is watching and what might become of the simple, “Yes.”
Evaluate potential consequences to saying, “No.”
Try to think about who may potentially be looking at you if you choose not to pursue this opportunity. Could you be limiting yourself from other potentials by turning this down right now? What adventure, experience, or learning growth might you miss out on? What relationships and network connections might you miss out on? What is your true inner reasoning for wanting to say, “No”?
When you have done this evaluation, and you come to the conclusion that you want to turn down whatever it is in front of you, there is no reason for regret. It is not about never saying, “No,” but rather about making sure that you are thinking things through, and not missing out on things that you should have pursued.
Consider the breadth of impact of pursuing the given opportunity. If something is presented to me that is beyond what I have done before, will offer additional growth (personally or financially), or will cause me to be recognized by more people, putting me on a bigger “stage,” I am likely to want to pursue it. That does not mean, however, that I would never pursue things that I have already done, or that are on the same level as (or possibly below) my current status. Remember, you are always being watched. Sometimes, doing something that may, on the surface, look to be of no benefit, or even to someone else’s benefit, more than it is to your own, is advantageous in other ways. Since opportunity breeds opportunity, the simple, status quo something you do now, can lead to something much greater later. You never know who is watching and what might become of the simple, “Yes.”
Life is full of amazing opportunities that can happen every day. They come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. I never want to miss out on something that I could have had, just because I let an opportunity pass by when I had the chance to take it. I don’t want to end life with regrets about the things that I didn’t do. I never want to allow my lack of attention, my hesitation or any form of fear cause me to miss a moment. I don’t want to fall victim to the tragedy of a missed opportunity.
When you have done this evaluation, and you come to the conclusion that you want to turn down whatever it is in front of you, there is no reason for regret. It is not about never saying, “No,” but rather about making sure that you are thinking things through, and not missing out on things that you should have pursued.
Evaluate potential consequences to saying, “No.”
Try to think about who may potentially be looking at you if you choose not to pursue this opportunity. Could you be limiting yourself from other potentials by turning this down right now? What adventure, experience, or learning growth might you miss out on? What relationships and network connections might you miss out on? What is your true inner reasoning for wanting to say, “No”?