If you didn’t know that experience and opportunity mattered before, I’ll bet you do now after being trapped inside for so long during the pandemic. Think of what happened to simply be able to travel or meet new and different people. In the near future you may be offered an opportunity for an experience. Will you take it? Does it challenge the boundaries of your comfort zone? If it does, it is even better! Experiences and people make you, and your life, more interesting, which will provide you with other opportunities.
Sometimes the experience will breed opportunity. I recently sold a car. The couple who purchased it were very nice. After they had seen and decided to buy the car, they came to pick it up. In the course of speaking, one asked me about an area of law and whether I practiced in the area. I do. From speaking with these people, we learned a bit about each other resulting in the possibility of a business opportunity. If I had solely viewed this as transactional exchange, only spoken about the car and negotiated the price, this wouldn’t have happened. I like learning about people. Taking the opportunity to do so creates opportunity even when you don’t expect it.
Everyone can be interesting to speak with. You need to picture people you meet as wearing a hat saying “make me interesting.” This is a reminder it takes asking questions and good listening to learn things about people. This is where opportunity comes from. It could be a business opportunity as I describe above, or an invite to a cool event, or a spot on an amazing sounding trip. The possibilities are endless, at least if you’re open to people and possibilities.
As always, this post and others can be found on my blog, Business Law Guy.