One of my favourite sayings is, “Opportunity only dances with those already on the dance floor”.
If you believe the economic press, people are all afraid to spend money. Retail is down. Businesses aren’t investing.
Then the natural inclination is to look for someone to blame. “It’s the economy, stupid.” Or “It’s political instability with leadership tensions”. Or “People are afraid to spend money”.
The problem is if you succumb to this thinking, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.
So if you’ve ever found yourself in this rut, change your thinking.
Start looking for the seeds of opportunity. They are everywhere. You just have to be open and recognise them when they appear.
But recognising isn’t enough. You have to take action or nothing will change.
Yes, this can be a risk. But so is crossing a busy road.
Your job is to look at the opportunity from different angles.
One way is to use the Disney process.
When thinking of new opportunities, Walt Disney viewed them from 3 distinct angles.
The dreamer: What could come from this opportunity? What wonderful things could transpire.
The Realist: What is really involved in pursuing this? How likely is the desired outcome.
The Critic: What could go wrong? What risk are you really taking?
Then if it stacks up – go for it.
Not everything will work out. But if you never try you’ll never succeed. And would you rather live a life of accomplishment or one of regret.
