relationships among the things and conditions of their
environment,

An opportunity in business consists of certain
conditions which, if detected and handled properly
by the right person, may be made to yield a profit or
win promotion,

Business exists to supply people’s wants, and these
wants are insatiable. Every one gratified gives birth
to two more wants, thus new opportunities are
endless. New trends and new goods come into being;
changing conditions bring wants to be satisfied;
‘unusual happenings offer unexpected opportunities.

Consider Thomas A. Edison’s coup. In 1862 he was
a Detroit newsboy of 15. A report of a battle appeared
in a newspaper. Edison bought a thousand copies on
credit, hopped on a train, sold the papers at railroad
stops for 25¢ a copy, and finished the day with $250
in his pocket, representing several hundred per cent
profit. He detected a public want, he determined to
satisfy it, he invested capital, and he went to work.

No person need travel far to find a starting point.
Opportunity is likely at his side. It is not a rule, as
some persons think, that one must change his job in
order to find opportunity. It may be earned by
producing beyond your rated capacity in the job you
hold. The wise person will seek a new working
environment only when opportunity has made the
change practical and profitable.

Have you an idea?

Every achievement is first of all an idea in the mind
of a person who sees a favourable chance to improve
things. Then follows venturesome thinking, which is
a potent force in bringing to light all the possibilities
inherent in the idea.

One needs to have a generous open-mindedness to
new notions and ideas. Day-dreams can be a source
of pleasure to the dreamer and valuable to society,
provided they are used to furnish goals and to spur
effort toward achievement. When you are day-
dreaming do not be content to imagine obstacles away:
think of ways to remove them or get around them.

Phantasy will be generous in revealing opportunities,
but remember that you have to come back to the
beginning to put a solid foundation under your dream
castle. After the flash of inspiration comes sober
inquiry and planned activity.

To every person each opportunity is worth exactly
what he is prepared to make of it. Unless you have
some sort of plan, you are like a person having a heap
of bricks without any blueprint for using them.
Develop the idea into a mental picture of the benefits
to be derived, the progress to be made, the profits to
be earned, or the satisfactions to be enjoyed. Then
will follow projects, plans, methods and proposals.

Be a devil’s advocate

After putting your idea into written form, play the
devil’s advocate: attack it as it will be attacked by

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persons affected by it. Having looked at the idea from
all sides you have tested its soundness, explored its
operational aspects and anticipated objections.

Look problems steadfastly in the face and measure
your strength against their difficulties. Make sure that
the opportunity is one you can do something about.
There is no more frustrated animal] than a cat watching
a mouse through a closed window.

The process may be summed up in this way: locate
the need, validate the need, ascertain the difficulties,
set down the benefits, collect information, and produce
the answer. Consider all the possibilities that exist
under circumstances as they are. It is a defeatist
attitude to reject an idea on the grounds that it might
have been a good idea if things had been otherwise.

“You cannot wish the environment of your detected

opportunity into changing, but you can go to work
improving it.

While not underestimating or over-emphasizing
your ability, make a list of your skills that are ap-
propriate to the task you face. A person’s capability
is not measured by the number of things he can do,
but by his competence in concentrating the skills on
one purpose at a time.

Think things through. Here is an opportunity. Your
resolve to take advantage of it must be specific, con-
crete and definite. Put a frame around your purpose:
even the greatest artists do not try to paint all creation
on their canvases. Form a clear opinion of what is
wanted or needed. It may be a completely new installa-
tion or system, but quite often a change will only
involve doing something in addition to or instead of.

If you cannot develop a clear consciousness of what
the result will be, try to judge its nature and to estimate
its effects by following it in your mind into the sitha-
tions where it leads. Do not forget, in this exercise, to
consider in addition to what problems your idea will
solve what new problems it will raise.

Many good plans fail because their presentation is
ill-timed. There is a right time to present your idea to
those who will be responsible for approving it. In the
ancient Greek games those who beat the starting
signal were flogged: but those who lagged behind it
did not win the crowns.

Qualities you need

To make the best use of opportunities requires
several qualities: alertness to see, quick comprehen-
sion, initiative, patience and industry.

Seizing opportunities is one way to find out the full
range of your talents. Count your mental resources
and acquaint yourself with your skills. The exercise
may throw light upon qualities you have hitherto
overlooked. In addition to asking: ‘“‘What is different
about this situation which seems to offer me an
opportunity to do something distinctive?” ask yourself
“What is different about me that makes me believe
that | am the person to do this new thing?”

A person of ordinary ability with keen perception