7 Magnets of Opportunities

Success and opportunities are intertwined. Wherever opportunities abound, potentials for success abound. It is by far easier to succeed where there are opportunities than where opportunities are absent or scarce. The driving force behind monopolies and duopolies for instance is the desire to restrict opportunities from potential competitors in order to maximize returns for the monopolizing parties. A key factor driving migration from less developed counties to developed ones is the general perception that the latter region offers more opportunities which profoundly increases the likelihood of achieving desired success— financial prosperity, political freedom, religious tolerance, qualitative education, excellent healthcare and other indices of good living. Many a parent will make sacrificial investment to send their children to world class universities because of the enviable career opportunities that can be attracted with qualifications gained from such institutions. What then does it take to attract opportunities to yourself as you go through life?

1. Functioning Platform 
Obvious as it seems, you need an active platform through which opportunities can be entrusted to you. For instance, entrepreneurs can only attract business opportunities when they have a tangible 'business' they are identified with. Your platform gives you an identity. It gives you visibility. It gives you recognition. It sends out a message to the society that you are available for particular opportunities associated with that platform. 


2. Excellence
Excellence is a powerful magnet of opportunities. When you are able to consistently deliver better results than others in your field, you will consistently attract opportunities they are unable to attract. As bees gravitate toward honey, so do opportunities gravitate toward the excellent. The best always gain at the expense of the rest. It is therefore not enough to be a player in your field- career, academics, sports, politics, ministry, entertainment, business etc, you need to constantly strive to stand out from the crowd. The demands may be tough but the rewards will pay off in the long run. Develop reputation for being a problem-solver. Become very good at what you do. 

3. Credibility

Attracting opportunities involve interactions with people and where human interactions are involved an element of trust is required. To become a person that attracts opportunities, you need to first become a person others can believe and trust. People and organizations with credibility are patronized more readily than those with little or no credibility. Compared to others, business contracts are more readily awarded to companies with credibility. Credible organizations attract more membership than others. Credible leaders are more trusted and readily followed than those devoid of it.  Without credibility, opportunities even if initially attracted will eventually be withdrawn. Your personal character and deliverables- products and services must be devoid of deceit in order to be adjudged credible.     


4. Crisis 
Life's opportunities will not always be presented to you on a platform of gold but sometimes on a platform of difficulties. Notwithstanding the discomfort associated with them, adversities do have advantages.There are millions of people in life who have built their success out of the very difficulties they encountered. Helen Keller said, "I thank God for my handicaps, for through them, I have found myself, my work and my God." Embedded in problems, difficulties and crisis are hidden but valuable opportunities. Unpleasant as it sounds, you should not have a pessimistic attitude towards difficulties. By maintaining an optimistic disposition towards adversities, it becomes possible to turn them into opportunities for success. The difficulties that do not break you will make you.  


5. Rendering Help
We do not succeed only by pursuing our own goals but also by helping others achieving theirs. The more involved you are in helping others succeed, the more you will be rewarded with opportunities to succeed. Ours is a world where many people are blindly and selfishly engaged in a rat race. But the irony of the rat race is that all the runners remain a rat- never achieving their full potential for fulfilling success. However, as you learn to step back, develop genuine interest in others, think of ways to help them succeed without necessarily expecting anything in return from them, you will discover to your amazement how many wonderful things begin to happen to you- all working together to propel you to greater heights of success. You see, helpers will be helped. George Gurdjieff rightly said, "If you help others, you will be helped. Perhaps tomorrow perhaps in hundred years but you will be helped. Nature must pay off the debt. It's a mathematical law and all life is mathematics."  
   
6. Network

It is a truism that your network is your net worth. As a case study, statistics indicate that unemployment among blacks in America currently stands at nearly twice the level among whites and Latinos. Some studies have however found that the absence of adequate network of friends, family connections and family businesses account for as much as 70% of the difference between unemployment rates among blacks and those of whites and Latinos. Theodore Roosevelt, America 26th President knew the importance of relationships for he once said, "The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people." Many of the opportunities that have come to you so far in life came through the people in your network- friends, friends of friends, family, colleagues, patrons, customers, clients, associates, mentors, proteges, and their own networks. Many more opportunities that will still come will also come through these networks. As you invest in improving on how you relate with people, deepening and expanding your network, you will find more and more opportunities naturally gravitating towards you.
    

7. Passion

When you are passionate about a cause, sooner than later, you become noticeable. By being noticeable, you naturally attract opportunities. The power of passion is so vital that its very absence accounts for much of the difference between the successful and the unsuccessful, between the excellent and the mediocre. Pat Utomi, a political economist and entrepreneur said, "I tell entrepreneurs and students so often that the percentage of success drive which can be attributed to passion is often underestimated." Passion breeds commitment. It drives people to go the extra length. It gets people going even where there are no visible traits of success. A passionate man is an unstoppable man.