By learning how to seize opportunities and make the most of them, you can give yourself a real advantage in your career and in your business.
Here are just a few reasons why seizing opportunities is so important:
- Making the most of an opportunity can help you get ahead of the competition.
- Seizing opportunities can help you learn new things and grow your skillset.
- Taking advantage of opportunities can help you build relationships with key players in your industry or field.
Making the Most of Every Opportunity is a Skill Every Immigrant Knows Well
I learned this from my father, Latin music pioneer Frank Llopis.
After being forced from his beloved homeland by Castro’s revolution, my father went on to become one of the most renowned Cuban musicians of his time, famous throughout Spain, Mexico, Central and South America. His quartet, Los Llopis, introduced rock 'n' roll into the rhythms and sounds of Salsa and Merengue music.
To say my father knew the right opportunity when he saw it is an understatement. That’s why his good fortune continued long after his music career. At 49 years old, he returned to his first love: chemical engineering. He moved to Azusa, Calif., where he went on to become one of the chemists responsible for the creation of Miller Lite.
You might say he was one of the first to live the High Life.
It’s from him that I’ve learned what I call the “immigrant perspective.” It’s a set of skills required for making the most of every opportunity. Those skills include the acts of seeing, sowing, growing and sharing opportunity.
The 4 Skills for Making the Most of Every Opportunity
I actually call them the four skills of opportunity management because, yes, opportunity takes management.
Most people wait for opportunity to present itself. But just because it arrives doesn’t mean you’ll know how to make use of it to move yourself forward.
Here are the skills:
- Seeing with Circular Vision: To make the most of an opportunity, you first have to see it. Broadening your observation beyond what you seek will enlarge your field of opportunities.
- Sowing Entrepreneurial Seeds: Plant seeds of opportunity in everyday activities. When good vision is met with consistent, hands-on execution every day, the result is a stable, growing fortune.
- Growing Seeds of Greatest Potential: Recognize the most promising opportunities and give them the right amount of attention. This begins with investing in people, valuing relationships, and maintaining strategic focus.
- Sharing the Harvest: Success comes most to those who are surrounded by people who want their success to continue. Making generosity part of your purpose and focusing on meeting others’ needs will multiply your momentum.
Conclusion
Once you have a balanced proficiency in these four skills, you’ll be able to make the most of every opportunity.
To see how well you and your team manage opportunity, take our free organizational culture assessment tools. To introduce these skills throughout your organization, hire a keynote speaker who sparks movements.
