Most of us are used to the conceptions of danger management or time management. Many of the same rules can be utilized to making and replying to opportunities. Instead of thinking of opportunities as just “coming along”, you can actually increment the number of opportunities obtainable to you, and there are specified principles you can use to valuate whether a “possibility” has real “probability” and “profitability” for you.
1. Expand your circle of friends. To increase the number of opportunities obtainable, you need to go beyond traditional networking to get friendships and trust with people who “aren’t like me”. Use any system you prefer, but be careful that your friendships take on various cultural, moneymaking and social grounds,
2. Always be open to possibleness. Feel for the unlikely, think the unthinkable and speculate the improbable. Life’s biggest opportunities are often disguised.
3. Practice creativity. Intentionally think of a way to turn every crack-pot, bad idea into something multipurpose. This is not about finding a way to commit in every scheme that comes your way, it’s about exercising creativity, turn ideas on their heads, finding the kernel of wisdom or value, and throwing the rest away.
4. Avoid being overly tied to your goals. Goals, and programs for attaining them, can be exceedingly useful. They can keep us on track, focus our efforts, and incite us when we’re fatigued.
5. “He who pauses is a damn fool!” There are times when opportunity pings, but only stays at the door for a moment. Be prepared to respond quick.
6. “Fools fast in where angels fear to step.” Being able to react speedily is not the same as being foolish. Nearly 95% of the opportunities, ideas and invitations that come your way will not be worth following.
7. Valuate the chance of achiever. Just as risk management compares the betting odds of being taken by whitening (extremely unlikely) to the chances of a important shipment being lost (more likely), and assigns different values to each, so opportunities have differing probabilities of success. Just because an opportunity could work out, doesn’t mean it will.
8. Assess the likely payoffs. Again, borrowing from risk direction, it’s important to asses the potential for “winning big”.
9. Actively take in opportunities. Let friends, co-workers, fellow workers, contenders and customers know that you are receptive to new ideas. They are much more likely to part a possibility with you if they know you are always “looking for ideas”, having fun with possibilities and trying to realize the “next big thing”.
10. Assess opportunities in conditions of your values. You know your strengths, your concerns and your core values. There will be opportunities that will ask you to become someone you aren’t. You could make a fortune in stocks, real estate, software, or a thousand other industries, but you have to live with yourself. First, sustain your unity.
