I used to think of opportunity as something outside oneself, a lucky break, a special chance, something that comes knocking on one's door, a destined chance that everyone covets. And so, I waited for it to come knocking on my door whenever time and space permitted.
But it did not come, or if there was a knock, it was something that brought me nothing and so took me nowhere.
Day after drab day passed. Where was our big moment that every person was promised? I waited in vain and eventually grew bitter. "Why didn't lady luck come?" I asked. All around me people were making ends meet, making progress, doing nice and envious things with their lives. I thought to myself, "eventually their chances have come."
I consoled myself and immediately the child in me retorted, "Why hasn't any person offered you a good fortune, a wonderful job or invited you to thrilling adventure or given you the breaks that ushers in a wind of change?" My mind inquired, "You might wait till the end of time if you will not budge," it concluded.
Gradually though, through a sheer urge to do something, I began to figure it out. I began to see that my expectations had been wrong right from the beginning. I had been thinking of opportunity as an outside something or an outside arrangement which one doesn't know. It is an inside attitude.
Opportunity does not come from someone else, it doesn't just happen, it is not just luck. It is a state of mind, an opening of your own heart and mind, a result of hard work, the widening of your own imagination, and the quickening of your own will. Some say it comes but once. I will never buy this thought. Opportunity is a state of one's mind. As you make your state of mind determines the number of opportunities you get. Luck is closely related or linked to opportunity.
People are said to be lucky when they seized an opportunity. Luck is the goodwill our Maker has put into every person. Luck depends very much on the generosity of people around us.
The people I see around me, those who are lucky are actually making the luck themselves by their own attitudes. They are willing to act and are acting continually. They open themselves to luck and if you have an attitude like theirs, anything is luck that comes your way. That doesn't mean that you get what you want always, or get what you expect.
How can I think without living always wrapped up in myself? The answer came immediately: study lucky people. Find out how they got that way. I was envious, jealous and bitter at first.
I thought they were pets to some privileged men, but I couldn't hang on to such a mad notion. It just didn't fit in; they weren't pets to any set of rich people or dignitaries. They didn't have rare or unusual chance. But rather, they were willing to pay the price of luck which is often the mighty step. They were willing to make changes and adjustments and accept compromises. They were willing to experiment, fail at times and be laughed at. They were willing to be lonely and frightened.
It is difficult to beat such people. You can not take their luck from them nor keep their opportunity from them. They are the type of people that discuss ideas. They neither discuss events nor people. They carry their opportunity and luck right with them anywhere and anytime.
You can carry yours. Never doubt you ability, you can make it. Start it now and carry it always.
Good luck.
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