can accomplish much, but opportunity has no meaning
to the clumsy or the indolent or the light-minded
person. An excellent opportunity may exist in the
presence of hundreds of persons and yet not be seen
by any of them. Or, if they see it and recognize it, they
may not have the ambition to take advantage of it.

To detect opportunity one must keep in touch
with what is going on. Put yourself into contact with
events and people so as to have a hundred eyes on the
look-out for opportunities. Wherever you touch the
vital stream of life you will be enriched. Every ex-
perience, every person you meet, has something to
impart to you. Do not limit your acquaintances to
people in the same line of business or profession or
art. Your big opportunity may be elsewhere.

You concentrate your thought and effort best on
something in which you are interested, Notice that
when a crisis occurs your interest deepens and your
creative talent is driven into high gear.

Learn by rapid reasoning the thing that is necessary
to do in order to meet the crisis or take advantage of
the opportunity. Your good judgment will take note
of all the circumstances and prevent your dissipating
your energy on something impossible.

Determination is a big asset, No matter how full a
reservoir of maxims we possess, and no matter how
good our intentions may be, if we do not take ad-
vantage of every favourable opportunity to act, our
condition remains unaffected for the better,

Really want an opportunity

Desire for opportunity can stimulate the search for
it. Desire is not just a milk-and-water wish. The
person who really wants something in his working life
can usually get it,

To the person who has worked hard for thirty-five
years that may seem to be an extravagant statement,
but Dr. Joseph F,. Johnson explained it in Business
and the Man, a volume in the Alexander Hamilton
Institute Modern Business library. That person, he
said, does not know the meaning of really wants,

“In the thirty-five years of his business life’, asked
Dr. Johnson, “has he ever voluntarily gone without
food or sleep in order to further the interests of his
employer or himself? Has he turned his back on all
pleasures which killed time that might have been
profitably devoted to the study of his business, or to
the seeking of opportunities to increase his business
or his own usefulness in business?”

It is necessary, as it was for Napoleon, to sacrifice
all secondary views, and to incur all lesser hazards,
to secure what you consider to be fulfilment of your
great opportunity.

Success in any enterprise depends upon courage.

There is something frustrating to the person who sees |

six opportunities but has not the gumption to seize
one of them. Fortune does not love, nor does she
lavish gifts upon those who hesitate to seize the
opportunities she offers, The person with mind open

2.3

for an opportunity to do something new is one who
is not afraid to contemplate a break with what is
normal.

Make up your mind to try. If you wait until the
outcome of your effort is certain, you will never move.
If it is some rule or custom that prevents your taking
advantage of an opportunity, muse upon the “Dis-
tinguished Order of Disobedience’, a high Austrian
military decoration. It was awarded only to an officer
who won a battle by disobedience.

Learn to take risks intelligently. Courage does not
imply rashness: a brave person knows that some things
are truly to be feared. He takes the dangers into
account,

And so: to work

An opportunity is something to work at, and the
emphasis is on “work”. An opportunity deprived of
the energy to make use of it is an idle dream.

Translate your plans into action as soon as possible.
Seize the opportunity and work at it with ardour. That
word, seldom used nowadays, means “‘great warmth of
feeling, fervour, zeal’’.

Being on the alert for opportunities to do something
worth while will be effective in preserving us from
indulging in sterile activity, and being active con-
structively is one of the best ways to replace the
scarecrows of fear, worry and anxiety.

Do something beyond the sphere of your assigned
duties. Sometimes opportunities are found through
“the little extra’. Many a person can say that the work
that has been of most benefit tovhim was work for
which he was not paid a wage.

When an opportunity shows itself do not let your
present load of work put you off. A crowded life is
most happy. To have many things to do every day,
and somewhat more than you can do at all times,
tends to arouse your energies and sharpen your
faculties.

Sir Walter Scott, while fulfilling his duties as sheriff
and clerk of court, produced his 18-volume Dryden
and an edition of Swift, and wrote Marmion and
Lady of the Lake. He said: ‘There was a wonderful
exhilaration about it all; my blood was kept at fever
pitch. I felt as if I could have grappled with anything
and everything.”

Something about ambition

Everyone may be the architect of his own fortune
if he makes use of his advantages and seizes his op-
portunities, but he must be willing to deserve success.

While doing your best within the limits of your
vocation — no ambition can cancel out that obliga-
tion — scan the horizon for the opportunity to display
the full extent of your ability. Having vision means
doing some long distance thinking, looking out
frequently over the broad world of human activities.

A person’s most precious gifts may be spoiled by