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Recognizing Opportunities

Walle finds 100 Grand

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.  – Napolean Hill 

Last week I celebrated my 31st birthday.  My lovely and loving wife bought me the Lego Walle set that I have had my eyes on since I learned of its existence.

I spent several fun hours with this build and am happy with the result.  I really do like the Pixar film Walle and I feel there is much to learn from it.  For example, Walle has awakened to a realization that life on his deserted planet is somewhat drab.  He continues to work hard going through the motions and striving to collect and crush garbage – but he has started to notice intricate and worthwhile finds while digging trash and junk.

He has quite the collection of intricate items that caught his eye and made him think.  He then finds the plant which is very different from all his other finds and because he collects it – his hobby – it soon opens wondrous doors of opportunity.

He takes action.  When Eva shows up Walle is terrified at first, but is curios and excited to see something that moves so gracefully.  He takes charge of fear and almost gets blown to smithereens.  I like the fact that he faces change head on and realizes he does not want to petal backwards to curbing junk anymore.  He moves forward by making a split second decision to grab on to the rocket and hold on for dear life!

At the moment it Walle was not thinking about how stupid it is to ride a rocket.  His goal was to see Eva again, and not be left alone.

Change has a tendency to happen quickly.  So does opportunity.

So how does one learn to recognize opportunity?  This has been a question at the forefront of my mind.  I love this quote by Henry David Thoreau – I think I have shared it recently,  but it’s worth sharing again;

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”

The way to recognize opportunity is to start doing things.  I read a great book entitled The Power of Starting Something Stupid, by Richie Norton.  He goes into details about how opportunities start to abound when you start.  The power of starting is real.  If you feel like you are not going where you want to go, if you feel like you aren’t living the life you thought you would have, start something new.

Opportunities certainly do abound right where you are.  Just learn how to start doing and stop talking about doing.  There is power in taking action and making decisions quickly.  When you do decide to act, change can and will happen fast.  That is why opportunity can be so elusive at times – it is always changing. When you decide to act, then opportunities line up in front of you.

Think about the blessings you have, be grateful.  Gratitude is a key to recognizing opportunities.  When you are grateful you have a tendency to look at each situation differently – with an eye of optimism.  Optimism is the secret to recognizing opportunity.  Where others will miss it because of pessimism and disbelief, you can be optimistic and take the action steps required to make it happen.  Being optimistic dispels notions of fear.  You will still feel fear, but instead of being debilitating, this fear will lead you to action.

Action coupled with optimism leads to great opportunity.

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That Can Do Attitude

 

Ernie Sorts Wires
Ernie Sorts Wires

…it doesn’t make sense, it’s not logical, it is a gut feeling! I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. I only know what I can do. – Captain Kirk, Star Trek

Doing has a lot to do with attitude.  If you do something with a bad attitude it can get done but to what end?  Doing with a can do attitude is key to making things happen, and enjoying the time it takes to get there.  I have been thinking a lot lately about what I can do and the simple word “Do”.

This simple word – Do, has so much power in it.  There is also another simple word that goes along with Do and that is Be.

Do and Be both have a profound impact on the ability to be an effective leader.  Doing what is right and following your “gut” is important.  Doing means taking action and making decisions when no one else will.  It is stepping up to the plate during times of confusion and offering solutions.  It means keeping your ears open more and your mouth shut more often.  Leadership requires not only a listening ear but also charity.

I like to look at charity as the great law of potential.  Many of you have probably heard of the book The Secret.  It speaks of the Law of Attraction and how to attract positive things into your life.  I liken this law of attraction to faith.  A simple definition of faith can be found in the Book of Mormon.  It explains that when you have faith you hope for things which are not seen which are true.  As a leader you must act in faith and do many things where you do not know the end.  As a leader, look to others and recognize not what they are, but what they can become.  Everyone has the potential to be great.  It is up to a leader to recognize and bring out that potential.

Doing and being are separate but at the same time inseparable.  Separate as we are not what we do, but inseparable because what we repeatedly do we become.

Taking action is required for leadership.  Stepping outside our comfort zone is required for our growth and the growth of others.

This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.  There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.  Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.  Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.  Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.  It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Be the anybody.  Anybody can lead if they will make up their minds quickly.  Fail quickly, succeed quickly.  Leaders act many times on instinct and make quick split second decisions.  If they make the wrong one then they correct course and keep plugging away forward.

As you look for others to lead find their potential.  Find their talents.  Delegate, not jobs you do not want, but delegate according to talent.  Find out what people would do without pay and get them excited to do just that and get paid for it.  This instills a desire to create and to excel towards ones potential.  That can do attitude will be ever present as you lead through applying people’s potential to doing and being and reaching it.