Opportunity is calling, are you ready to answer?

I was out walking with my wife yesterday and we discussed a myriad of things: When should we buy that Hot Tub… Where should her office go in San Diego… What our business goals should be… Should we eat more salads and less ice cream??? (that topic was tabled for obvious reasons) and the more interesting discussion was “What the focus of this year should be”. In previous years she had focused on themes like “strength” and “resilience” and I wanted to adopt a similar mantra – something to bring the focus back whenever I feel wayward.

To that end I quickly chose #Opportunity.

This past year I detected an underlying premise in some of the books I was reading. Some of our most successful and innovative champions on Earth may have just been…Lucky?

My favorite example is with Bill Gates. His story was retold in both “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell and “The Psychology of Money” by Morgan Housel. The super-distilled version of the tale is this: Young Bill Gates’ school had bought one of the most advanced computers at the time and he had near-unimpeded access to it – thus allowing him and his close friend to spend countless hours learning and developing their skills with it. Virtually no other high school in the country had this tool, and thus the #opportunity didn’t exist for millions of like-minded children. This enabled Mr. Gates to reach his 10,000 hours of mastery much (much!) faster than his peers – driving him to his level of success. 

My favorite point of the story isn’t that he was just lucky or he had an unfair advantage – it’s that he embraced that #opportunity and dove into it with all of his creativity and passion. To that end I’m hypothesizing that #opportunities like that exist for everyone and I’d like to prove it this year.

Whatever big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) or wildly powerful dream you have I truly believe – to my core – that you have (or can create) the #opportunity to make a step towards it. 

How? Easy, here are a couple exercises:

-Think of five people right now you know that could help you, they’re #opportunities.

-Think of books or formal education you can complete this year, also #opportunities.

-Have you shared your dream with your network (social, academic, professional, familial)? Someone in your network has you closer to your dream than you realize, promise.

Interested in your thoughts, feel free to dive deeper with me and follow along for the rest of the year.

Coaching Question of the Day: “What would happen if you had the courage to pursue your biggest, scariest dream?”

Feeling like you're meant for something more? We can help you find it.

Cheers!