Opportunities

Good ideas are cheap. Everyone has good ideas.

Do you know one of those dreamers? They’re always buzzing with new ideas. They have three movies scripts in their head. They have ten book ideas. They come up with life-changing inventions almost weekly. They’re the dreamers. Head in the clouds.

But you’ll notice, they rarely become successful. A great idea isn’t the only key to success.

Success requires three keys to be unlocked: The idea. The opportunity. The work.

Since good ideas are cheap and we talked about the work the other day, let’s talk about the opportunity.

You’ve heard of so many great ideas that were “before their time”. They were world-changing but the world didn’t embrace them, so they flopped. They lacked the opportunity. The dreamer had the idea and worked hard, but it wasn’t the right time.

A great idea at the wrong time is the wrong idea.

So I’m realigning my approach to thinking. I’ve realized my ideas will always be flowing, but I need to look for opportunities. I need to tune my radar to ping when the timing is right.

And not to get all listy on you, but this is what I’m looking for when identifying opportunities:

1. The sunrise of perceived need. When enough folks start realizing a need in their lives, that’s the time to jump. A newly perceived need with no solution is the perfect place to pounce on opportunities.
2. A passion inside me. Just because the need is there doesn’t mean I’m the right person to satisfy it. But if I start getting passionate about the need, I know it might be for me. Opportunity.
3. The time I need. Even though I’ve identified the need and the passion, it doesn’t mean the timing is right. I need to be able to devote time to the project. That either means I have the time currently or am willing to drop other things I’m working on. It’s usually the latter. But unless I have time to devote to this, it isn’t an opportunity.

So that’s my brief list of how I identify an opportunity. What would you add to the list? What opportunities are you jumping on?

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