SHERO on Opportunity:
The minute you change
your tune from why me? to why not me, you will start to see
opportunities instead of road blocks. You have heard the saying when
life gives you lemons you should make lemonade but it goes beyond
that... don't just make lemonade.. sell the lemon to someone who needs
it, think of making lemon pie, use the lemon for cooking... the point is
that there are always always always many opportunities lurking around
you but if you are not open to them they
will simply pass you by. Sometimes we think that the grass is greener
on the other side or that we have give up everything and start again
where all we had to do was look under our nose for the opportunities
that were lurking.. Here's a story by Russell Conwell and later
popularized in achievement circles by Napoleon Hill "Acres of Diamonds"
that will put things in perspective for you....It is a true story of an
African farmer who heard tales about other farmers who had made millions
by discovering diamond mines. He decided to sell his farm (at a very
low price) and go prospecting for diamonds himself. He sold the farm and
spent the rest of his life travelling the African continent searching
unsuccessfully for the elusive gems that brought such high prices on the
markets of the world. Finally, worn out and disillusioned he threw
himself in the river and drowned
Meanwhile, the man who had
bought his farm happened to be crossing the small stream on the property
one day, when suddenly there was a bright flash of blue and red light
from the stream bottom. He bent down and picked up a stone. It was a
very large stone, and admiring it, he brought it home and put it on his
fireplace mantel as an interesting curiosity.
Several weeks
later a visitor picked up the stone, looked closely at it and was frozen
with excitement. He asked the farmer if he knew what he’d found. When
the farmer said, no, that he thought it was a piece of crystal, the
visitor told him he had found one of the largest diamonds ever
discovered. The farmer had trouble believing that. He told the man that
his creek was full of such stones, not all as large as the one on the
mantel, but sprinkled generously throughout the creek bottom.
The original owner of the farm was sitting on acres of diamonds and he
had no idea. He had sold it and walked away from his opportunity. If
the first farmer had only taken the time to study and prepare himself to
learn what diamonds looked like in their rough state, and to thoroughly
explore the property he had before looking elsewhere, all of his
wildest dreams would have come true.
How many of us are sitting on our own Acres of Diamonds but are looking elsewhere and outside of ourselves for opportunities?
Labels: Opportunity
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