Opportunities don't happen; you create them

By: Manzi Mugisha Prince.

I was reading a book the other day and the author mentioned how in today’s world, people are disillusioned by instant success. When you look at Jack Ma or Elon Musk and the wealth they have acquired you feel that at some point in your life you are going to stumble across an opportunity that will send you shooting to the top. The author who happens to be Darren Hardy said that when you look at the T.V and see an individual who just won an Olympics gold medal, you don’t think of the number of times they tried before or the amount of practice they put into, in achieving what they just did. It is that instant success that deceives a number of people.

I will go ahead to give an example in fitness. I know two different negative mindsets people have when asked about working out, or staying fit. One, fitness is not my thing. I mean, who pays a monthly subscription to go to the local gym? It is just ridiculous. These kind of people feel that fitness does not add up in the equation of life. The other is those who feel that after working out for a good two months on getting a nice set of abs, they pose in mirrors and expect results. When nothing shows, they are devastated. They see no reason to continue.

In life, there is no overnight success. When you look at certain billionaires today, count the years you did not know about them yet. Ask yourself, what was he/she doing then. They were hustling, they were rejected, their ideas just did not seem to add up. This did not discourage them however and it is the consistency that got them that breakthrough. Colonel Harland Sanders, the man behind the famous Kentucky Fried Chicken(KFC) got his chicken recipe rejected 1009 times before someone finally deciding to accept it. Look where the company is today. Walt Disney, who is given credit for the famous Mickey Mouse show and its theme park was rejected 300 times before he decided to settle and make up his own original animated cartoons, that were later perfected with a new method which combined live-action and animation. The animation world was born from there.

All I am saying is that these are big names that are recognized worldwide but in most cases, we don’t stop to see what it took them to achieve what they achieved. Once we do that, we would not after being rejected by a certain university. We would not quit after getting declined by that one job opportunity. In most cases, we human beings feel that an opportunity will come overnight and then we are going to make it. I know a quote that reads ‘The hard work puts you where the good luck finds you.’ In this case, the good luck is that opportunity you have to work towards attaining. It is not going to come out of nowhere. You are going to have to work hard and it is then that it will present itself. Sometimes, that opportunity might even come and you won’t be able to realize it. Therefore, once you know what you’re after, you won’t stop until you have earned it.