Chapter 13

Create Opportunity

Make Things Happen

Be a person who makes things happen, rather than one who does not. Create opportunity; do not spend your life waiting for it to arrive. There will be occasions when luck places something extraordinary in front of you. Be grateful when that happens. But you can’t design a life around the hope of getting lucky. Stop waiting for things to happen. Instead, meet people, learn new skills, and experiment constantly. Ask questions, launch projects, travel, and take smart risks. Focus on making yourself useful and becoming good at something. Opportunity has a peculiar habit of appearing more frequently to people who are already in motion. Ships that wait for the perfect wind never set sail. There is rarely a perfect time; there is usually only a good enough time and the courage to begin.

Take Action

Thinkers who never act create thoughts. Talkers who never act create words. Eventually, something has to be done. Doers create results. Do not become one of those people who spends their life explaining what they are going to do. Do it. You will learn more from attempting something and failing than from endlessly discussing how it might be done.