Rearview Opportunity

It’s easy to determine an opportunity after it has already shown itself as an opportunity. Being an early investor in Tesla, one of the first employees at Google or Facebook, buying more Apple stock after it crashed. These all seem like amazing opportunities in hindsight. These all seem like amazing opportunities that you would do anything to have for yourself if you could. These all seem like amazing opportunities because they went on to work out. Each of these examples led to massive success. But you cannot view these opportunities with a perspective filled with hindsight and present-day knowledge. The reality is opportunities only look like opportunities after they have already happened. They are in the rearview mirror. When staring at any potential opportunities today, they seem filled with risk.

For every opportunity you may have today, tomorrow, or in the near future, you will undoubtedly conquer risk in order to realize that opportunity. Almost nothing in life is certain and that is especially true for the opportunities that come your way. If every entrepreneur became successful, everyone would become an entrepreneur. If every investment opportunity that looked innovative and shiny revolutionized an industry, there would be tons of “smart” investors. If every athlete who transferred to a new school became a star who turned professional, loyalty in college sports would disintegrate.

Any and all of these decisions viewed as “opportunities” are filled with risk. The company you are passionate about starting can, and probably will, fail. The investment opportunity that caught your eye could be a scam, could be hiding much more debt than they tell you, or has no plans ever to become profitable. That athlete that transferred lost their job to freshman and their playing days were over.

Recognizing opportunities is understanding the risk presented. It’s understanding the potential effects of failure and also understanding the massive opportunity for success. It’s playing your cards right without knocking over the whole house of cards. By understanding the risk involved you are able to accurately unlock the potential for success while also softening the blows of a potential collapse. Opportunities are everywhere but everywhere they are, risks also reside. Become comfortable with risks and become comfortable with realizing the upper bounds of opportunity. The opportunity to create the life you want to live will only look like an opportunity after you have already seized the risk that the opportunity is today. Once you’ve seized it, the opportunity will always turn up in your rearview mirror.