One day in a beautiful
morning, a young man was lying lazily on a couch not far from a busy market.
Though the market was so crowded with shoppers and sellers passing by, he was
not disturbed by the crowd. He continued to lie down lazily trying to get more
sleep.
A merchandiser who happened to pass by was surprised to see him. He approached
him and asked, "Hey, young man, the morning is so beautiful. Everybody is
busy working! Why are you lying lazily here?"
The young man opened one of his eyes a bit and answered with his weak voice,
"I am waiting for opportunity to come."
The merchandiser was so shocked to get such an answer. "Do you know what
it looks like?"
He just nodded
his head as a sign of no. "People say that I have to wait for opportunity
to come then I can change my luck. I will be successful, rich and get whatever
I want. Therefore, I just wait here," explained the young man.
"You don\'t even know what it is like, so why should you wait? You better
come with me, help me out. Join me. You can change your life if you want to
learn to follow my steps," offered the merchandiser.
"Ah, non-sense.
Go away! Don\'t disturb me," shouted the young man madly.
Getting such
unpleasant words, the merchandiser hurriedly left the young man. Not long after
that, an old man approached him. He still could see the merchandiser going away
from his sight.
Afterward, he looked at the young man next to him. "Hey, young man. I have
been watching you lying here waiting for opportunity to come. Have you got it
yet?"
The young man then got
up and said no.
"Didn\'t it just
come to you? The man that you just drove away is a wealthy merchandiser. Why
didn\'t you follow him and take his offer?" asked the old man curiously.
Upon hearing the old
man, the young man suddenly realized his mistake. He hurriedly got up and
shouted to call the merchandiser. Too bad, the merchandiser had left. Even so,
he kept on shouting for him. He tried to find him but it was really too late.
"Hey, it is useless to shout like that. Your opportunity just left
you," said the old man. The young man looked sad and wanted to cry. He sat
recklessly not knowing what to do to get the opportunity back. Because of his
narrow mind, the opportunity just left and all the time that he had spent to
wait for it to come to nothing.
Feeling sorry for him, the old man advised him, "Young man, if you want to
get opportunity you must know the secret. You cannot catch opportunity
if you cannot identify it. When you really want to have it seriously,
it may not come. But when you are not serious, it may be just in front of you.
When it came through the merchandiser, you did not recognize it and it just
went away and might not come back anymore. "
"If that so, what should I do?"
"Fine, I\'ll give you another secret. Opportunity does not only
come once. If you miss it once, one day it will come back. But remember,
opportunity doesn\'t come just like that. There must be something you do to
create and strive for it."
"That\'s right, I
will try to follow your advice," promised the young man. The old man then
told him another secret, "You must also know that there isn\'t a right
moment to start looking for and finding opportunity. So, don\'t wait. Start
right now, get up and do your best. Work hard and fight till end, then
opportunity will come just in time when you are ready to get and do it."
There are so many of
us trapped in the wrong view that when we are lucky, opportunity will come by
itself. When it still does not come, we just wait, wait, and wait. This mind
set is out of date or even misdirected. It will take us to wrong direction. It
is proven that those who just wait, opportunity never knocks on their
doors. Even when it comes, they do not recognize it but miss it.
On the contrary to the
previous one is the mindset that always creates and chooses opportunity. We
have the right to possess this mindset. We can obtain it by deciding,
creating and striving for opportunity. Deciding means creating commitment
to reach opportunity by being active. Creating means taking affirmative steps
to open opportunity and proactively do the best to make it come to us. And
striving means generating right effort so that opportunity is best used to
bring maximum outcome as we wish.
Sometimes, we just have small opportunity that we might not appreciate. My
experience has taught me not to ignore an opportunity no matter how
small it is. Many great achievements start from small opportunities that
others ignore. It is true that only people who can identify opportunity can
enjoy great and excellent result. They are usually good in maximizing small
opportunity by turning them into excellent output with right decision and
action. Hopefully, you are one of the lucky people!!