The Golden Opportunity

What is a Golden Opportunity? It is an opportunity given to us by someone in our network that has a positive impact on our business, career or personal life. Sometimes a Golden Opportunity only has a small, but meaningful impact on our lives. Perhaps the opportunity – seemingly simple and small – serves to make our day more productive, profitable or enjoyable. Consider a casual conversation with someone in our office who we have never met before. The new acquaintance yields the name of someone who can convert what was shaping up to be a complex problem into a simple solution. This new contact serves to help us avoid what might have been a late evening at the office. Sometimes a Golden Opportunity has a greater impact. Perhaps the opportunity provides the impetus that vaults us to a record month, quarter or year.rnConsider the referral Thomas Ponz (Crosby-Ponz Printers, Columbus, Ohio) gave Jeff Allen (a world-class illusionist and professional speaker with Afterimage Productions, Dublin, Ohio) – Thomas’ connections provided Jeff with potential inroads into 29 separate speaking engagements at the local Marriott Hotel. Sometimes the impact of a Golden Opportunity is much more dramatic. Perhaps the opportunity changes the entire landscape of our business, career, or personal life. Consider Harrison Ford – discovered by George Lucas as he labored as a carpenter in the movie industry. Have you ever wondered where Ford would be today if he was not pounding nails on the set when Lucas happened through? Or better still, have you ever wondered who would have gotten the part of Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy? Golden Opportunities occur everyday. Some famous and some not-so famous. Some dramatic and some not-so dramatic. Whatever the case, when we hear of these opportunities, usually we cannot help wondering, “why not me?”rnThe truth of the matter is that Golden Opportunities exist for everyone. Out there – somewhere – for each of us, there is someone who possesses a Golden Opportunity – that chance meeting or conversation that will make our day, week or entire year. Knowing this, the questions are almost predictable: Who is this person? Where are they? How do I meet them? The answer: We never can tell. It may be someone we already know. It may be the next person we meet. It may be someone we will not meet for years. A more important question, however: How would we treat an individual if we knew that he or she had a Golden Opportunity for us? The fact of the matter is that if we knew the people who had a Golden Opportunity for us, we would probably treat them like, well, gold. We would warmly welcome them into our network. We would be considerate of their feelings. We would be open to their opinions, and we would be responsive to their needs. Unfortunately, we are not privy to who these individuals are. Therefore, we are presented with a problem: We know how to treat these individuals, but the best we can do is move through life wondering who they are and when we will meet them. Understanding this – knowing what to do, but not knowing to whom – our course of action should be clear: Every day, we need to treat everyone we know and everyone we meet as if he or she is the individual who can provide a Golden Opportunity. This directive requires that we avoid qualifying our networks. In other words, we cannot look at one person as holding more or less opportunity based on our knowledge of his or her status or position. After all, our next best client, boss or business partner could find us from the most unexpected source.rnIn summary, remember that out there for each of us is a Golden Opportunity. Our mission: Find it by treating everyone we meet as if he or she can deliver it to us.