How to Spot an Opportunity
Knowing when something is a genuine Opportunity is how the lucky stay lucky.
I used to hesitate in calling myself lucky.
A quick glance over the events of my life would show I was God’s personal shit bowl, just taking one round of utter nonsense after another.
Sure random things happened to me that could be deemed “lucky”, but no one ever saw the hell that came with it. The only people who would call that kind of fortune luck were masochists and maybe Ted Turner.
But then a few things happened. Well mainly one.
I started using psychedelics and marijuana on a fairly regular basis, originally intended as a means of escape from my position in life.
But a funny thing happened while I was using them.
I had the fortune of being guided through the experience by trained professionals, and as a result I was lead to review my life in a way that I hadn’t considered. Even though things didn’t turn out the way I thought they should have, they were actually the best things I needed in order for me to reach my maximum potential as a human being. I understood my story.
I took the lessons of story from my plant based teachers and began applying them to how I viewed life living forward.
Which brings me to what I promised you…how exactly do you spot an opportunity?
You have to be looking for one and be ready to work for it. Because every opportunity comes with a story and if you’ve found the golden Easter egg, you can bet your sweet ass there’s a dragon ready to chomp your head off not too far away. And you, have to figure out how to deal with it.
Keep your eye open and be ready to work.
Plain and simple.
In the moments between opportunities you should be honing your craft and skill until the appointed time to shine comes. And to do so is no easy task. Many never get the chance to shine because life is a worthy adversary and there are a multitude of things that can dim your light prematurely.
This is one of the reasons why after all of the things Jay-Z has done, I still hold him in my mind as a true feat of dogged determination and luck. He is far from perfect and I don’t always agree with everything he says or does, but I cannot deny him. He carved a path of gold from lumps of coal and showed life he was a worthy opponent, with one hand cuffed to bench.
And this stroke of genius and luck is not reserved for him alone. He was literally the example to show it could be done. You could be yourself, help your people, change the world and have a loving family, all while honoring your spirit and allowing it to grow. If you would only take the opportunities life presents you to do so.
I know this article sounds very woo-woo but it’s true.
Sidebar: I’d really like to know who came up with that idiom, it’s such a fun expression for abstract concepts.
To find opportunity you have to be stubborn enough to look for it and know that what ever obstacles are in your path you can defeat them. Because I’ll tell you a secret no one wants to admit. Opportunity always looks a lot like hard work. There are shortcuts you can take but nothing’s going to replace the work that needs to be done to sharpen your mental abilities to the point where you can stubbornly face down the dragon guarding your gold.
And if you can do that my friends, you won’t hesitate to call yourself lucky anymore.
I know I don’t.
