You want to invest or start a business or take your investment group forward but you seem to be stuck as far as identifying the next step or the next opportunity is concerned. Here’s why you cannot seem to see the opportunities that are right before their eyes.
LOOK WITHIN
The first reason is that you are looking outwards rather than inwards. You are looking at what you don’t have rather than what you have. You are looking at what someone else has done and where he or she is today rather than what you can actually do.
For example, you may have heard about someone who capitalised on opportunity and put up a shopping mall. Immediately, you think that is how all opportunities look i.e. putting up shopping malls.
Your mind quickly focuses on what you need to set up your own shopping mall (land, capital, contractors, etc). However, this shopping mall idea begins to appear hard to exploit, so you give up on it.
Your problem is that you didn’t admit that that was someone else’s version of opportunity, not yours. Moreover, you did not stick around long enough to hear the entire story from the owner of the shopping mall. Maybe he started with the same amount or less resources than you have, so listening to his entire story could have taught you something, or at the very least inspired you.
BIRD IN HAND
When you are looking for opportunity, look at what you have in hand; it may be all you need to start. You will find opportunity when you align your current resources with ideas, investments and so forth.
Please note that I am talking about current resources and not resources that may or may not have come at some unspecified time in future. What do you have right now?
When you answer this question, you need to look at more than just money; what you have could be your skills, networks, a supportive family, ideas, etc. Determine in your head to believe that what you already have is enough to start, even if there is no money in the bank.
Opportunity does not show up in a mental environment of scarcity.
The second reason why people miss opportunities is by imagining they only get one shot to exploit a given opportunity. Picture this: There was a time when you had a workable idea or were in a position to make a certain investment, but for some reason you didn’t do anything about it. Years later, you come across someone who did something with that same idea or investment opportunity. You then tell yourself that the one shot you had is gone. But I say, that’s not true.
Even if you did not act on an idea before, do it now. They say the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago but the next best time is now.
Thirdly, opportunity requires you to show up. The reason you are good at the job you do today is not because of your degree; it is because you show up day in day out.
You have some good days and you also have the kind of days that make you want to stay in bed until the world comes to an end. But what do you do? You still show up. And when you make some catastrophic mistakes like we all do every so often, you still show up. Opportunity responds to the same thing. Show up. You don’t have to have an earth-shattering idea. Just act on the small things that come to mind. Maybe your small idea was to invest in the stock market.
Do it. Because once you do it you will start observing more and more about stock markets and maybe one day when you connect the dots backwards you’ll find that this is what led to you starting a business.
Maybe it was a business idea. You don’t have to wait for the perfect product that will instantly have 1, 000 customers. Just try and get one and let that teach you.
Realise opportunity is more about process than sudden inspiration that sorts you out for life. It is about just being in the bus rather than having a sure route to the final destination.
Maybe opportunity is waiting for you to just act on the small things. Like Stanley, my colleague, always says, one million shillings is made with a million one-shilling coins. Act on your shilling and the million will show up.
Lastly, opportunity cannot come to you in the same environment. You have got to be doing something different or thinking about something different or talking about something different.
If you are looking for opportunity what is the difference in your environment? If the cycle remains the same e.g. go to work, come home, watch TV, complain, etc., you may be in the wrong environment and will not hear that soft knock.
You cannot be complaining about how hard life is. Even if life is hard, you can still do something different. Change your routine. Wake up a bit earlier and read something different.
Go out of your way to talk to those people who seem to see opportunity. Do research on something. Act on something. This sharpens your powers of observation. So opportunities are all around. Are you ready for them?