Even though the world around us is chaotic – to paraphrase Lin-Manuel Miranda – you can’t “throw away your shot.” So even though there’s so much noise, it’s very important to hear the opportunity when it’s knocking. Opportunity is such a powerful word. Scary. Exhilarating. Overwhelming. Sometimes it’s all of those aforementioned adjectives at the very same time.
We like to look for them when big life events happen (good or bad) or the calendar rolls over. Many see New Years resolutions as an opportunity to change an aspect of their lives. The timing makes sense for many to create their own opportunity. Off topic, is it too late to wish people a Happy New Year? Probably cuts off January 15th, right? Anyway, we digress. There’s a reason we set resolutions and there’s a reason we need to seek out or look for opportunities when they present themselves. As Websters dictionary states, the word means “a favorable juncture of circumstances.”
As we alluded before, good stuff and hardships can present itself as opportunity. A job promotion can motivate yourself to take the bull by the horns just as getting passed over for one can. A divorce from your spouse can be a time to bury your face in the sand just as it can be a time to regroup and see what’s out there for you beit a new career or relationship. It’s all about perspective – obviously given enough time to lick those all-too-real wounds. In other words, everything can be an opportunity if we let it. Along the same lines but sort of a different animal, investment opportunities often present themselves or you could “lose yourself” in the moment or “own it” Eminem style and seek them out. You could invest in a business endeavor, play the stock market, or figure out what an NFT is and sell it. Some people are selling farts but we’re not going to touch that. With the times being what they are, look no further than to Baron Rothschild, an 18th-century British nobleman and member of the Rothschild banking family, who is credited as saying that “the time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets.” The original quote is believed to be “Buy when there’s blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own.”
The above is brutal. This is contrarian investing. Many great fortunes were built on it. But, not all see opportunities the same. So, overall, opportunity is more than just a word we’re beating to death in this post. It’s something we have to look for and seize any chance we can get.