Opportunity is missed by most people because...

13 years ago

Hey Gordino.

I think that opportunity is missed by many people because they don't have an “abundance mentality” or “a positive mental attitude.”

(And instead of opportunity they see failure, lack, limitation, and rejection.) However these things are opportunities for expanding and appreciating everything you have. And - they open the door to amazing personal and professional advancement.

As it's been said before: “Every adversity, every failure, and every heartache carries with it a seed of an equal or greater benefit.” (Napoleon Hill.)

Good thread.

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"Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman

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PaulMark

13 years ago

"You may succeed if nobody else believes in you, but you will never succeed if you don't believe in yourself." ~John Maxwell

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Odahh 13 years ago

I find it interesting. not that so many opportunities get missed . Or why they get missed. You want the real lesson about missed opportunities. what football games and notice how many perfectly thrown game changing passes get dropped.

Most people either hear footsteps before they catch the ball or look down field before they catch the ball. cause remember have the time you go for an opportunity. something is going to hit you hard . Or you start running before you get a grasp on the opportunity.
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Odahh

13 years ago

then again 99 percent of the time people don't even know a pass was thrown or that it just wizzed by them.

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grannywriteswell

13 years ago

I don't think many people are "open" to opportunity. If they are handed an idea on a plate they tend to over think it rather than relying on that gut feeling of excitement that comes when you know you are onto something "right".

A lot of that over thinking (IMHO) is because people are afraid of failure. They want something so badly, but their fear is actually greater than that desire. So they tend to stop looking for opportunities - if you don't see it, then you can't fail at it.

For me I love the fact that Thomas Eddison did keep trying for so long to achieve his dream - I mean how many people have quit when they might have only been one more try away from success. I remember the light bulb and I keep trying

Have a great day
Ellen

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Apollo77 13 years ago

Too many people have become complacent with the status quo.

"just make enough money to pay your bills and everything will be alright", it's thinking like that which is the cause for failure of dreams and bigger success. "If your comfortable where you are, your in a bad spot",
being uncomfortable, scared and excited means your about to grow.

Johnathan said it right, "people don't have the abundance mentality". Life is meant to be abundant in all areas... spiritual, health and wealth. The "Law of Attraction" really does work, and they have proved this scientifically.

When I watched the documentary "The Secret" a couple of years back, it totally changed my mindset, the biggest problem is letting go of the negative reactions of what others may think and say about you going after your dreams. You become a mirror for them and they start to feel like they have to do something because your making them look bad, plus they have an invested interest in you staying the same cause they are used to you the way you are. Not everyone is like that, but more often than not it is the ones closest to you.

You really need to put your mind in that positive state and change those negative thoughts to the opposite or to something positive.

IF YOUR GOING THROUGH HELL, DON'T STOP, KEEP MOVING THROUGH
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ada

13 years ago

Originally Posted by grannywriteswell

For me I love the fact that Thomas Eddison did keep trying for so long to achieve his dream - I mean how many people have quit when they might have only been one more try away from success. I remember the light bulb and I keep trying

Ellen

Edison did say,"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." He also said, "Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." and "Nearly every man who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged."

We should remember these when we are dealing with our own failures, or at least what we see as failures.

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Odahh 13 years ago

Benson,
The other thing that is interesting . where many American have been raised to be blind to opportunities. To settle for a working life getting what they can get. Many people around the world for a good hundred years and more. Where trained that America was where you went to seek opportunity. They generally worked hard to get here. then got here and worked hard. Many made it.

You can quote and quote and quote from a hundred brilliant people. Most will blame it on some failing in man. When the problem is in society. most people are trained to only want a little better in life every few years. Or they are trained to hang on to what they have. That was there because of the great depression. Granted Edison was well before that. The change came from the depression.

Remember subsistence farming was the way most humanity lived until the last few hundred years. then city life was pretty brutal and dirty until a hundred years ago then in most of the world city life is still on the dirty side. The safety of jobs is the ideal in the world. The freedom of the opportunity seeker is the exception not the rule.
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- bensonenterprise 13 years ago
  
  Odahh, I have to agree with you about society and opportunties. But at some point, a person has to decide to move away from the norm and decide to have more for themselves and demand more from their lives.
  
  Once the blame can be faced inward, a person can rebuild themselves and become empowered to achieve greatness.
  
  You are right though that greatness cannot be found by those who blame others and are unwilling to change their conditioning.
  
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keep.livin

13 years ago

Originally Posted by ada

Edison did say,"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." He also said, "Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." and "Nearly every man who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged."

We should remember these when we are dealing with our own failures, or at least what we see as failures.

Well said, well spoken

It's not that opportunities are missed, the problem is that they are not created, usually cause, as previously stated, they don't want to do the work, or they don't know what work to do

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ada

13 years ago

Originally Posted by keep.livin

Well said, well spoken

It's not that opportunities are missed, the problem is that they are not created, usually cause, as previously stated, they don't want to do the work, or they don't know what work to do

Honestly, I think most often its because they don't know what work to do and when they do know, it seems to over complicated to them. So they give up (get discouraged). I do my best not to give up, I usually get

first. Then I start to take action.

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Michael Lee

13 years ago

Some of my favorite quotes on opportunities:

Opportunities are never lost; someone will take the one you miss. - Author Unknown

When I look back now over my life and call to mind what I might have had simply for taking and did not take, my heart is like to break.- William Hale White

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. - Francis Bacon, Essays, 1625

It is often hard to distinguish between the hard knocks in life and those of opportunity. - Frederick Phillips

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. - Harry Truman

I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one. - Mark Twain

The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes. - Benjamin Disraeli

Nothing is so often irretrievably missed as a daily opportunity. - Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

I held a moment in my hand, brilliant as a star, fragile as a flower, a tiny sliver of one hour. I dripped it carelessly, Ah! I didn't know, I held opportunity. - Hazel Lee

Jumping at several small opportunities may get us there more quickly than waiting for one big one to come along. - Hugh Allen

Seize the opportunity by the beard, for it is bald behind. - Bulgarian Proverb

If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door. - Milton Berle

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Odahh

13 years ago

Hmm,
I wonder what does it matter that most people miss opportunities. It happens. Many very successful people pass up opportunities all the time. How many best selling books have the story of 100s of rejection letters behind them. I have the opportunity to win the lottery every day almost.. but i buy tickets maybe every six months.

The problem is not people missing opportunities. the problem is the masses of people who fail . Do not believe they have any opportunities. In many ways our society trains people to be opportunity blind. That is why someone who come into the us is more likly to succeed in some way than some one born here.

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bensonenterprise

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Odahh

Hmm,
I wonder what does it matter that most people miss opportunities. It happens. Many very successful people pass up opportunities all the time. How many best selling books have the story of 100s of rejection letters behind them. I have the opportunity to win the lottery every day almost.. but i buy tickets maybe every six months.

The problem is not people missing opportunities. the problem is the masses of people who fail . Do not believe they have any opportunities. In many ways our society trains people to be opportunity blind. That is why someone who come into the us is more likly to succeed in some way than some one born here.

I find your comment to be very interesting to me. In my studies I have learned that we as a society are conditioned to believe that what we are to expect in life is we go to school, get a job, get married, have children, and we work to provide enough to send our children to school and hopefully have enough for our retirement.

Even the schools teach you how to fall into this category.

Learning how to see opportunity is the first step towards finding it.
I like how you note that people are opportunity blind. I never looked at it this way before. So thanks.

Here is a quote that I personally find very empowering to me:

"Set a goal to achieve something that is so big, so exhilarating that it excites you and scares you at the same time. It must be a goal that is so appealing, so much in line with your spiritual core, that you can't get it out of your mind. If you do not get chills when you set a goal, your not setting big enough goals."
Bob Proctor

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RevenueBuilder

13 years ago

two things that have helped me GREATLY: A whiteboard and a notepad next to my desk, BULLET POINTS!!

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Woody C

13 years ago

Originally Posted by The Great Gordino

I came across this one just this morning:
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

That reminds me of the quote by Vince Lombardi - "The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary."

I think that's brilliant.

As far as opportunity, Peter Drucker said it best when asked how he was able to accomplish so much if it all came down to “luck” or “accident," then in a serious tone he said:

“Don’t call it accident. Opportunity favors the prepared mind. If opportunity knocks at the door you have to open it. You have to be receptive to it and I was.”

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sean-john

13 years ago

This is a great "

“Every adversity, every failure, and every heartache carries with it a seed of an equal or greater benefit.” (Napoleon Hill.)"

i love his book think and grow rich.

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Apollo77

13 years ago

"Set a goal to achieve something that is so big, so exhilarating that it excites you and scares you at the same time. It must be a goal that is so appealing, so much in line with your spiritual core, that you can't get it out of your mind. If you do not get chills when you set a goal, your not setting big enough goals."
Bob Proctor

Couldn't have said it better.

Bob Proctor is very inspiring and his words of wisdom resonate through me like a tuning fork. Gives me chills just listening to him and thinking of the possibilities.

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Jeremy Barker

13 years ago

That saying is SOOOO true. People want to get rich quick most of the time and when someone joins something or starts something and two weeks later they are not any wealthier than before, they quit!

It takes certain individuals that will work for something diligent to make it come true and work for them.

I heard a good statistic somewhere (don't really remember where):

"Only 3% will succeed." That is a simple saying but they were referring to online marketing here. This holds true to other endeavors also.

Only a few people will actually make it happen. Are you one of them?

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DawnMarie 13 years ago

Opportunity is missed because of over thinking and under doing.

:-)
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- rickcast66 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by dawnday
  
  Opportunity is missed because of over thinking and under doing.
  
  :-)
  
  I'll agree to this one. There comes a time you have to stop thinking or learning and start doing.
  
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- RyanLow 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by DawnMarie
  
  Opportunity is missed because of over thinking and under doing.
  
  :-)
  
  Absolutely agreed. Sometimes, we spend too much time thinking about details and worry about failure, where we should actually be putting in the necessary effort to make things work:p
  
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Avesel

13 years ago

Because most people think small. They lack ambition.
When was the last time you got an A+ in a class that you were only interested in passing?

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juliapattrick

13 years ago

Opportunity is missed by most people because lack of hard work and patience in them

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WillQuick

13 years ago

I think the biggest thing keeps me finding more and more opportunities is my penchant for blagging (I'm not sure if this word translates across the pond, but I guess you could call it bull****ting / exaggerating etc.)

I'm full of self confidence and in interviews and meetings I tend to talk big and have a habit of overselling my abilities and skills. Then, between that initial meeting and the next meeting, I have to work my nuts off to master whatever skill or technique that I said I already had.

It's like artificially creating a tide that I have to always work to stay one step ahead of. It works great for me because the fear of looking stupid works as an excellent motivator.

(obviously you can only blag as much as you think you'll be able to learn...)

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IMoptimizer

13 years ago

Originally Posted by The Great Gordino

Thomas Edison's birthday today - his is an inspirational story, and there are many great Edison quotes.

I came across this one just this morning:
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Great though, eh!

What are other reasons that people miss opportunity?

I'll start with this - opportunity is missed by most people because they weren't prepared for when it arrived.

I agree with you. I think most people wouldn't know what to do if a great opportunity came to them. I can imagine them being under pressure if it's a big deal. It's just part of life though, we all have this moment I think.

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therenegadeleader

11 years ago

Procrastination actually.

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nuworld

11 years ago

Many cannot see an opportunity and therefore take advantage of it.

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KevinDahlberg

11 years ago

Every opportunity I have missed is because I haven't been ready for it.

Wether it's growing up, learning a new belief, accepting a fact about life, education, or experience, I've missed way too many opportunities because I wasn't ready to get on board when the train left the station.

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humboldt84

11 years ago

Opportunity is missed by those that do not decide what they want and then don't go after it. Today is the day you can stop missing opportunities and make something happen for your life. Take action no matter how prepared you are, just start today!

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." -Thomas Edison

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Charchil

11 years ago

Opportunities are missed because of our personal inability to take action. As also remarked by Thomas Henry, "The Great end of Life is not Knowledge but Action."

More often than not we all know what needs to be done but we all get caught up in day to day activities and miss on the actions which could make a real difference in our lives.

We might say that we may not be prepared to take up something but the truth is you never need to know the whole path. All you need to take is the next step and if you keep on taking just one action after another. You will never miss on any opportunity.

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eternalsongbird

11 years ago

Opportunity is missed by many people because at first they do not realize the value of that. When it goes away, people starts to suffer.

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motions5

11 years ago

Opportunities could be missed because of constant postponing (not taking action, as Charchil very well explained), because people are not ready to take the step, because of a combination of both. Often opportunities are also missed because of a lack of persistence and people giving up too easily. It's harder to miss an opportunity if there is someone to guide and push you - to set you deadlines and keep you on track. That's why there are such professions as 'personal trainer', 'life coach', etc.

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ih8themall

11 years ago

Great quote! Thank you for sharing!

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