A toast to taking up a new opportunity

When you're asked to propose a toast, and there's no person that you're toasting. Well, first you panic. Then you write furiously, and then edit furiously. And then you scrap your first 2 ideas. And somewhere around the 2nd or 3rd draft of the final idea : this is what you end up with. At least on paper anyway. A couple of sentences got left out here and there to save time. But this is pretty much the toast I gave this week at my Toastmasters meeting. 

I recently met a woman online in a business women support group, who's business involves selling custom shoes online. She relayed to me the story of a Venture Capitalist who declined to invest in her company, because " women will never pay more than $500 for a pair of shoes" . She tells me that he did call her back the next day to take up the missed opportunity, after his wife educated him somewhat on the world of woman's shoes and shopping habits. It was too late however, as she had already taken investment from another firm, and could no longer entertain any further offers or interest. 

Like most of us, this VC had missed the opportunity because it did not fall within his realm of experience, he could not see the market demand, and envisioned that it would be hard work in creating the market niche for the product, without realising that the market already existed. 

Thomas Edison famously said that Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

I must agree with Thomas, in my experience when something looks like work, humans tend to think it couldn't be a very good opportunity. we are predisposed to grading or evaluating "opportunities", without realising that our own experiences could in fact be tweaking our own perceptions. 

And that is why most of us miss the proverbial boat. Success comes at the end of a great many failures and lessons, each of which is an opportunity that is taken, held onto and worked,  to within an inch of it's life. Failing does not mean you lost the opportunity, it means you took the opportunity and learned. Failing after trying is a badge of honour.

Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Gen George, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg. All of them failed several times over, and still do to this day when they try new things. The validation of an idea and an opportunity comes in the trying. 

Whilst it's true that we become more risk averse as we age, it is not true that opportunities get worse, we simply evaluate them through our lens of experience a little harder. We are all capable of great things no matter our stage of life. 

So, lets raise our glasses, to the entrepreneurial spirit in each of us, may we have the bravery to take up new opportunities, and the courage to look for more in the face of lessons learned. 

Cheers !