07.28.08
The Cost of Lost Opportunity
How much money have you lost because you held back? I decided there were many more opportunities to attend a specific networking meeting, so I took a break. My competition attended that meeting, in the rain, and got a deal worth tens of thousands that I would have got. Today that business is worth a small fortune. I missed it, because it was more convenient to stay home. “I’m going to think about it. I’ll do it next time. There will be many other opportunities. I’ll attend the next program. I’m going to take a rain check. I’ll miss this meeting and do it next month.” Procrastination is the assassination of motivation. You snooze, you lose. Hugh Allen said, “Jumping at several small opportunities may get us there more quickly than waiting for one big one to come along.”
Opportunities are never lost; someone will take the one you miss. “Nothing is so often irretrievably missed as a daily opportunity” says Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach. Time is money, honey. If you’re not there, someone else will win the prize, and over time that prize grows. Mark Twain said, “I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.” The inconvenient, pricey, difficult, and uncomfortable usually hides the most lucrative opportunity. “I held a moment in my hand, brilliant as a star, fragile as a flower, a tiny sliver of one hour. I dropped it carelessly, Ah! I didn’t know, I held opportunity.” ~Hazel Lee. If that opportunity only made you a thousand dollars a month, you would have $24K in the bank within two years. Or nothing. Don’t justify laziness - it’s simply too expensive.
Successful people go beyond their comfort zones, pay the price, capture every minute, delay gratification, and step up. Only three percent of people succeed magnificently, and it’s all about choice. Easy to do, easy not to do, as we learn from Jeff Olson. Small, consistent, good choices practised daily, become a habit of success. Self discipline creates great self-esteem, and we earn money in direct proportion to our self esteem. Do the hard thing and get rich. Thomas Edison said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Winners INSIST on success. They push the envelope. They create their future and seize every opportunity. They don’t think of reasons why it won’t work, or focus on the cost. They consider the prize if it DOES work, and get excited about the potential. H. Jackson Brown Jnr. said, “Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.” I agree. Today is the day. Today is the first day of the rest of your life, and it will never return. The price of discipline weighs ounces, but the pain of regret weighs tons. Just do it. The block of granite which is an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong. Choose to be strong; you’ll always be glad you did.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
