Why Do We Say “Seizing Opportunity”?
Why do we say “seize the opportunity” when we could say something like, “go pick up some opportunity”? Probably for the same reason we say “seize the day.” Why must we “seize” both opportunities and days? Read on and lets find out!
Opportunities don't come around all that often. If they did, if opportunities could be found as easily as forks in a kitchen, we wouldn't have to “seize” them.
Let me give you an example.
If I wanted to start a McDonald's franchise today, how would I do that?
I might call their corporate offices or go to their website where I'd probably find an option on the machine saying, “press 7 for franchising information” or “click here for information.” There would be little risk for failure because, today, McDonald's is an established name, brand and business. I would not have to seize anything to open my own franchise other than an insane amount of debt.
But what if instead of opening a McDonald's restaurant today, I had the opportunity to open one 55 years ago?
Imagine that I'd just met a young Ray Kroc and he told me that he had an idea to make food so fast you hardly had to wait on it after you placed an order. Kroc then said that he was looking for people to use his technique and that he'd already gotten a lot of interested people reaching out to him. If I waited too long, the opportunity to be part of a world-wide revolution would soon slip away.
When an opportunity is only available for a short amount of time, then and only then, can we “seize” it. I think that's also why we say, “seize the day.” We have to seize today because each day is fleeting; here today, gone tomorrow, and never to return.
We have to reach out and grab life; life cannot be lived vicariously. Opportunities can be too good to be true, but the opportunity that can lead to our personal fulfillment must be seized!
So, how do we do that?
In order to seize an opportunity, you must have 2 things:
1: You must have vision.
If you're hoping to seize an opportunity, you must first have the vision to see it. You have to be looking for it. Recognizing opportunities for what they are isn't easy; if it were, everyone would have jumped on the McDonald's opportunity and invested in Microsoft, Facebook or Dell. You must have a vision for yourself and your life in order to be able to recognize opportunities.
Secondly, you must have a vision of the future and the ability to recognize an opportunity for what it could become, not just what it is today. You may not have wanted to be in the hamburger or restaurant business in the late 1950s but what if you'd known what the opportunity would become? See, that's the thing with opportunities; we have to seize them before we fully know what they will become, believing in only what they could become!
2: You must have means.
In order to maximize the opportunity after you seize it, you must have the means to move forward. You have to be prepared for what comes next. You must possess the people connections and personal ability. You must have the outward activity and the inward drive.
If you seize an opportunity without the means to pursue it, you may just be better off sitting this one out. Better to be prepared and practiced than to only go after your dream halfheartedly. You must have the skill and the will, the two things that make up the means to pursue any opportunity.
Now that you know what you must have in order to seize an opportunity when one comes along, click here to see how you can evaluate, act and pursue your way to success!
Carpe diem; carpe opportunity!
