How do I recognize a great professional opportunity when I see it?
Truthfully the probability is very high that will appear in a non-traditional form. Here are seven things when to open the door when a career changing opportunity knocks. 1. Opportunities are risks wrapped in various shapes and sizes: If you’re the type of person who doesn’t like risks - get over it! The only way to create anything new is to take a risk. If you’ve been thinking that you will be able to achieve great success without taking chances and always playing it safe, you are sadly mistaken. Break the cycle by taking little risks and build up over time. 2. Risk vs. Reward: Early in my career I worked on several “high risk-high reward” assignments. Lucky for me I never had a major screw up. I quickly learned that these projects and teams often use the same go-to people. It’s like playing your best players at crunch time. Volunteer for internal and external projects that will give you exposure to the starting players and senior leaders and decision makers, even if it’s the holiday party committee. 3. Determine if it’s on the path to where you want to go: Whatever you are trying to achieve, you need to have a plan. Ask yourself, would success in this project get you one step closer to your ultimate goal, job, or venture? 4. All that glitters is not gold: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Beware of people who seek to use you to advance their own agenda. For example, I know a handful of people who have made millions in multi-level marketing (sometimes referred to as pyramid schemes). However, I know of more than a hundred who have failed miserably working in this type of business model because they lack strong salesmanship, disciple and time, and a wide social network. Read the fine print and understand when and how you will be compensated if you are well suited for any opportunity. Work on fine-tuning your judgment about people, places and things. 5. Do what others have not or cannot do: Is the opportunity related to creating, launching, or doing something that others have not been able to do? Seek opportunities where you will be first or able to establish a strong reputation for yourself in one area. Remember in life, career and marketing – you don’t always have to be the best, just first. 6. Select ventures that you will be able to quickly leverage to create and find other similar opportunities: The saying you are only as good as your last hit, really applies to almost every industry. Think how success in this project or job will cause others to seek you out to do the same thing for them. 7. Embrace change: Just as you must get over any fear of taking risks, you must embrace change and doing things in a new and different way. Approaching your career in the same manner is not going to make a life-changing shift in your career. Expand your knowledge, expertise, and experience and always look for a new way to do the same old thing, Today embrace a new mentality about opportunities and your big break. Remind yourself that calculated risks, leaps of faith, and stretching you outside your comfort zone are necessary to create career success. Everything you do will not work out as planned, so play the numbers game by taking more and more calculated risks, and soon more and more will start to pay off.
Some days I feel like a fraud. Don’t you? The shoes I’m supposed to fill are too big even for me. I’m doing my best to be and act like the given or chosen “title” I’m wearing at the moment – parent/child – CEO or currently unemployed – self-employed/working for “the man” – whatever it may be. It doesn’t matter. At times, I’m hanging on by a thread getting everything done, and I simply feel like I don’t measure up.
Starting this blog is an amazing lesson that is continually unfolding. There have been many days when many things have gone wrong or someone has “passed” on the opportunity to participate. Of course, I’ve asked myself many times, what the heck do I know about writing a blog and book about anything, let alone living life doing what you love and exploring meaning and purpose? I’ve gone there, and then some.
But at the end of the day, I’m doing this for me. I am confident in myself and my vision, and desire to make a difference in the world (let alone in my life) – in this particular way. That’s it!
I’ve been asked many times, and in many different ways, where does my or anyone’s confidence come from? Truth is, I don’t know. But I do know all things being equal – ability, opportunity and support (in my opinion the three pillars to successfully doing what you love) – the one thing that makes the difference in who swims and who sinks, is confidence.
Confidence is not to be mistaken with arrogance. Arrogant people are insecure and overcompensate, not to mention project how they feel about themselves unto others. Sure, some arrogant and even narcissistic people are very successful.
What I am proposing here is that confident people simply know and are excited about the great things that make you, you. What are the skills (no matter how random) or the talents and abilities you bring to whatever you do in some unique way that creates value?
And, if you don’t know what these things are, you’d better figure them out, and soon – because life and career requires not only knowing it, but also the confidence “to make things happen.”
I know many talented, bright, energetic people who don’t know their professional or personal self-worth. They lack confidence. They are looking to others to give them some 10-point roadmap on how to have a successful career in (fill in the blank). It’s a map that simply doesn’t exist.
Here’s a question for you. If you don’t know what makes you special (i.e., what is your point of differentiation), then how in the heck (not to mention why) is the person you want to work for or with supposed to figure that out for you?
And here’s another. If you can’t point to at least one thing you’re good (and interested in), then how can someone else believe great things about who you are and what you can do for them? That’s where it all comes down to: a mental game that’s rooted in your self-confidence.
We all need to restore and, at times, simply find confidence in ourselves. Sometimes we fake it to make it, and at other times we hold onto the tiny bit we have and just run. Like all skills – confidence comes easier for some but takes practice for us all to really get it right. And as some food for thought, here are my top three “how-to” ideas.
1. Listen to people who genuinely compliment you, and take it in. I can recite many things my nursery school teacher Ms. Guida said to and about me that made me believe to this day that I can do almost anything I set my mind to, including, “Patrice may be the only two year old I’ve met who could be dropped in the middle of the woods and somehow figure a way out.”
2. Think of the times you thought you would never get through XYZ but somehow did anyway.
This (especially for you analytical types) means you actually have a greater statistical probability of being successful in the future, because you previously succeeded. So what the heck, try it – the odds are in your favor.
3. Find one thing you are really good at it and bring that “thing” to others.
This third and perhaps most important/difficult point is first realizing that your “thing” can be the smallest thing. It could be that you make one darn good cookie or pretzel. Perhaps you’re magnificent at managing egos and music careers. Or like me, maybe you’re simply good at talking (especially on your feet) and have a way of getting others to listen in a way that connects you to them, and them to others.
We all know the stories of the Beyoncé, Benjamin Franklin (my favorite person from history) and Beethoven. For us mere mortals, don’t expect big abilities and talents because they must likely won’t appear in that form. Instead, our “it” will be a series of many “little” things about us or just things that we do very well. I love Josh Quittner’s line: “The things we are good at, are the things we tend to do.” In themselves our “things” are not huge, but some have huge “potential value” for others. You may think one thing, what’s the big deal, how is that one thing going to change anything? Well here’s a newsflash … one thing can change everything.
Let’s say you find something you’re confident you do really well. I can’t promise that it will lead you to a life and career full of purpose and passion. But I can guarantee you that if do just one thing really, really well – people will ask what else you can do well, too. It’s basic economics and supply and demand. Build great demand for one thing (i.e. your business “cash cow” that supports the largest segment of market share/profit) and then it will be very easy to convince people you can deliver when they need something else that you might “be just perfect for.”
Start today by exploring and ultimately being clear about one thing you do well and can bring to any table with confidence. But do the whole process with confidence as well. Next we’ll figure out ways to find or create opportunities, not to mention that actual “table(s)” for you to bring your confidence to.
I confidently know some days I don’t know what the heck I am doing and figure it out as I go. But instead of fearing what I don’t know, I claim this fact with as much confidence and exclamation as I can muster.
Confidence is that turn on the path that leads many of us to the very thing we’re supposed to do or enables us to do the current jobs or careers that aren’t going anywhere with greater sense of purpose.
When you really think about it, it’s not that hard because at its core confidence is simply knowing who you are and who you’re not – and being ok with both. All it means is doing something you’re really good at that makes you feel proud and happy with a sense of accomplishment. Be confident in being yourself because it’s the one thing at which you can never fail.
