The Manila
Diaries
Opportunity
8 June 2012
86 degrees Fahrenheit, Partly cloudy,
Humidity 83%
This week has been one of
opportunity.
This has caused me to reflect on
- do we ‘take’ opportunities or do we ‘create’ opportunities? I think we do a bit of both. Taking an opportunity implies that something
has been offered to us or created for us and we are the grateful recipient of
something useful to us; creating an opportunity implies we have been purposeful
or self-motivated to take action that might provide us or someone else with
something gainful. The former suggests
we are passive and wait for opportunities to float by, the latter suggests we
need to be proactive, take responsibility and be responsible for the
consequences.
A friend one called me opportunistic
but went to lengths to explain that she felt that was a good thing. I had to agree, I have always been open to
opportunities, both taking and creating, but I think the difference for me has
been that it has been easier to pick up on something created by another and to
use it to my advantage.
This week I created an
opportunity that may be very beneficial not only to Level Seven’s presence here
in Asia but also for me personally.
However, it is too soon to say whether the opportunity will yield the
results I would hope for.
On reflection of why it felt easy
to take the action I did; these are my conclusions. I felt I had nothing to lose, I was at a
point that I needed to have a purpose for action for my self-worth and for the
business and I felt confident that I had something to offer and I didn’t think
too long about what I was doing (i.e. I did not analyse the situation for too
long but acted on an evidence-based impulse).
Of course this situation and ultimate decision only concerns a few
people; sometimes opportunistic action may affect a greater number of people
and the consequences may be more far reaching but unless we have the courage to
develop and act on a level of self-belief we may be in danger of missing out on
all manner of things.
My challenge to you is to develop
your opportunity spotting antennae and to be courageous and act on it when you
believe it is right to do so.
Signing off for now
Our Correspondent in Manila
No comments:
Post a Comment