Opportunities are around us all the time. How come we do not see them? If you ever regretted missing an opportunity … keep reading this article.
It’s amazing how many people miss an opportunity. It can be a job opportunity, a business opportunity, an opportunity to get ahead … or improve their situation in any aspect of their life. Opportunities are everywhere, not only economically or professionally, we also find them in sentimental relationships, friendship and many other fields.
People look for an opportunity but …
Many people swear to be looking for opportunities. Some even ask you for help because they are doing everything possible to get an opportunity and life treats them so badly … But when you scratch the surface, it is often something else you find. As the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche would say “sometimes you have to hit it with a hammer to see if it is really hollow” (“The Twilight of the Idols”, a very interesting treatise on philosophy, I leave it at the end of this article within the recommended reading so you can take a look).
My experience with some of these people is not very positive. (As you know I was many years in the world of social entities, and I have also worked with different business groups to hire staff and present business ideas … so I have extensive experience on which to base these claims).
I can tell you that there are many people to whom you offer them an opportunity and, it is not that they reject it … it is that they do not even want to know what the thing is about. When you decide to call one of these people to say “Hey, we’re doing this, I remembered you, come and take a look at it because it can help you.” Do you know what they do? THEY DO NOT COME. Are you one of those people? Keep reading.
And why do not they come out of that situation, instead of losing opportunities?
Or more briefly, why do not they come? Well, generally, when you can talk to them, they have a pilgrim excuse that they do not believe themselves at all (it was far, it was raining …). There are also people who, when you offer them an opportunity, do not answer the phone again. The worst, perhaps, is that many think they are doing you a favor and that’s why they do not go.
Others imagine things that have nothing to do with reality, such as that you’re going to “sell them something” or “cheat them,” or that commercial work you offer them “they will not know how to do it” or that person who you are going to present “is going to hate them” And all this without even trying! With these limiting beliefs they assume that they will not be interested, even without first knowing what it is about! The worst thing is that many of these people are in the situation where they are because of this very thing.
But the truth is that the opportunities are out there, for the whole world. And it’s sad to see how those people “do not go” when you go altruistically to knock on the door to offer them something that interests them, because you remembered them. But those same people are always crying “Oh, if I had a chance to do what this one did or what that other did” and when they call them from an interview “I better not go, because it’s too far away”.
How not to miss a good opportunity
That is why it is very important, so as not to miss any opportunity, to KNOW EVERYTHING. They say that information is power, and Albert Einstein said that “if you want different results you should try different things”. I, for example, when they propose to present me a business, an idea, a project … something, I try to take time to go and see it. Going to see what it is about does not mean that I am involved with what you are presenting to me. In fact, 80% (or more) of the businesses that propose me, I end up rejecting them. But do you know what the difference is? That I know with reason why I reject them. Does anyone who has not seen what it is know?
And, of course, if I go I can ask many questions, think about it, see the feasibility, evaluate whether I’m interested or not, measure the time it could take me if I get involved (to know if it compensates me or I have that availability), understand how it works to know if it can be done or not … But the important thing here is that I acquire all the necessary information to make a decision. How can someone make decisions about something that may interest him without even knowing what it is? Seen like that… Doesn’t it sound obvious?
And when the opportunity has already passed … “to rabbit fled, sticks in the burrow”
Why am I telling you this? Because I do not want you to be one of those people who lose very important opportunities in their life simply because they “believed”, “imagined” or “thought that …” they were not going to be interested.
And then it happens that you meet that person several months later and he says “Oh, I’m looking for an opportunity for this” and you say “How? But I called you two months ago to offer you such a thing”. Or they say “Oh, and what are you doing? Why did not you tell me anything?” And you say “I told you two months ago and you told me your head hurt” or “You said you came and you did not come” and they answered “Ah! It was for that! I thought it was something else”. And why did not you ask me, if you were not clear about it, instead of not showing up?
And although you still want to give the opportunity (although you would be in your right to send that person to hell, honestly) many times the opportunity is over. They hired someone else for that position, or the guy/girl you were going to introduce is already in a relationship, or the project started with other people. That’s when they get angry with you and the bad person is you.
Do you really want it? Learn from a Kung Fu teacher
There was a Kung Fu teacher in the village, and there was a young man who wanted to learn to practice this martial art, so he went to see him.
When he arrived in the presence of the teacher, he said, “Listen, teach me kung fu, I want to learn to do what you do with your arms and legs, teach me”. The Kung Fu teacher observed him and said “you do not want to learn kung fu, when you want to learn kung fu, come”. And closed the door.
The young man protested “How can I not? I want to learn, what are you saying, are you going to tell me what I want or what I do not want, who will know better than me” and he went away indignantly shouting expletives for all path.
The second visit
At the time it is seen that he thought about it and returned to see the master of Kung Fu, to see if this time he convinced him. “Hey, I want to learn Kung Fu, to see if you teach me now because the other day you did not feel like working, and you told me that I did not want to learn, very bad, very bad that of blaming the the rest”.
Then the teacher undeterred said “No no, you do not want to learn Kung Fu”, and began to close the door, but before it closed completely added “When you really want to learn Kung Fu, you tell me”. And he closed the door in his face again.
At that the young man got angry screaming “This guy is crazy, he thinks he knows everything, now apart from Kung Fu seems to read minds and everything, even knows Kung Fu or know nothing” And the same, screaming and throwing expletives all the way back to his house.
The third visit
But the young man either was very persistent or had a lot of free time, so he went back to visit the Kung Fu teacher again. And he said: “Hey, I want to learn Kung Fu, to see if it is clear at once, and to prove it to you I do not intend to move from here until you teach me Kung Fu. What do you think? If you do not know Kung Fu nothing happens, you tell me and that’s it ”
“Come,” the teacher said, and the unbelieving young man followed him. He was going to teach him Kung Fu? The Kung Fu teacher took him to a nearby river. The young man followed him to the same shore thinking “often the weirdest place has been searched for to teach Kung Fu”.
Suddenly, the teacher in a movement grabbed him by the neck and stuck his head in water. The young man was already thinking that the “crazy old man” was going to kill him. Perhaps he had gone on to say that he did not know Kung Fu. But, he no longer wanted Kung Fu or anything, just get out of there.
When he was about to drown, the teacher takes it out and says: “Do you realize how you wanted the air?” So when you want to learn Kung Fu as much as you wanted to have air, as you wanted to breathe, then you want to learn Kung Fu ”
How does this story affect you?
There are many people who say “I want to change”, “I want an opportunity”, “I want to improve this in my life” … but at the moment of truth, when you give them an opportunity, they do not take advantage of it, or leave it to the less hint of difficulty, or do not take it seriously, or have other priorities such as “having fun” or “going partying”. Everything is for them before they really change things. Maybe it’s because the change is beyond their comfort zone, maybe they’re afraid of losing their habits, or maybe it’s simply vagrancy or “laziness”.
And it is very important to realize this. Because sometimes we believe that we want things in our life that really do not interest us. And we spent some time in a loop where we did not advance. Would there be a reason to move forward? It is not enough to say “I want to change this”. Planning without action does not work.
You must cling to what you want as if it were the air you breathe, when you lack that air. That is called passion.
Habituation and Comfort: The story of the frog that was cooked alive
Many times we fall into the error of “accommodating ourselves” to what we know and we dare not go further. Do you know how the frog legs are prepared? They catch the live frogs, and put them in a pot with water. Then at low heat they begin to increase little by little the temperature until the frog is cooked. And it cooks alive!
Why the frog doesn’t jump out of the pot?
Many people wonder why the frog, when he sees that it is burning, does not jump out of the cauldron. The saddest thing of all is that it does not jump because it gets used to that progressive temperature.
If a frog suddenly fell into the boiling water, it would quickly jump out. That burns! By pure instinct would come out of there. But the frogs that are there from the beginning are comfortable and warm, they are with their little friends, and they do not react until it is too late.
There is no turning point when there is comfort
In that scenario there is never a point where the frog says “Hey, I have to change that situation”. Many times the same thing happens to people. We are in a situation and in that situation we are getting worse and worse, because we do not realize that we are there.
We say things like “we are going to give a little more”, “we are going to put up with a bit more”, “we are going to go a little further to see what happens”, “it is what it touches”. And we never break with that situation, but we’re still there until, as with the frog, it’s already too late.
Comfort, the danger of getting used to something
This phenomenon is also due to the fact that it is what one is used to. When you get used to something, it becomes comfortable. When you spend too much time in that cauldron of boiling water, and go out there, where “it’s cold”, it’s uncomfortable. We are warm inside the cauldron, where we are cooking without realizing it. “Sometimes the bad known is better than the good to know”
That comfort means that we do not try new things, that we do not assume risks. But many of those “risks” are only in our minds, and they are simply things we have not tried before. The unknown often scares us.
The fear of the unknown
When you have not tried anything before, you do not know if it can go wrong. That insecurity is an uncomfortable feeling. That’s when I think it would be interesting to think about what happens with these frogs, and how there are aspects in your life that may resemble this situation a bit. Do you want to be inside or outside the cauldron? Tic Tac Will there be frog legs on the menu today?
Many people say that they want to learn, that they want a change in their life, but it really is not like that. To improve you have to be willing to “pay the price”. Do not forget to want to sharpen the ax too.
Has something like this ever happened to you? Do you know people who do this? Tell me in the comments. I would also appreciate it if you share it on your social networks so that you can help more people. And if you like stories of improvement and how to take advantage of the opportunities I recommend a book entitled “Who has taken my cheese” by Spencer Johnson, you can get it in the following links along with the other recommended readings of this article:
