FAILURE TO SEIZE OPPORTUNITIES
There is an old saying to the effect that "opportunity knocks but once
at our door"--and that is all _fol de rol_. Opportunity knocks at some
people's doors nearly every day of their lives and is given a royal
welcome. That's what Opportunity likes--_appreciation_. It goes often to
the home where the latchstring hangs on the outside. It's like a sign
reading "Hot coffee at all hours, day or night"--very inviting. Very
much different, however, from the abode whose windows shed no light and
whose door _is barred from within_.
"Nobody Home!" that's the sign for this door.
Mister Numbskull lives here and most of the time _he sleeps_. When
anyone knocks on his door he pulls the covers up over his head to shut
out the noise. He's down on his luck anyhow, therefore it would be a
waste of good shoe leather for him to be up and puttering around. If
Opportunity ever knocked at his door he could say in all truth that _he
never heard it_. He had often heard of Opportunity being in the
neighborhood, but one thing is certain--_someone else had invariably
seen him first_. He felt sure he would know Opportunity if ever he met
him face to face, and if ever he did he would have it out with him then
and there.
Meanwhile--dadgast the luck!--always the fates pursued him with some
sort of hoodoo. And his neighbors--well, some of them had sense enough
to keep their distance and let him alone. Others, however, had not been
considerate of the fact that a "Jinx" was on his trail, and were given
to making sarcastic remarks concerning him. And thus it was that Mister
Numbskull spent his days, dodging his neighbors, sidestepping the
highways and obscuring himself from the very individual he wanted so
much to behold--_Opportunity_. At last there came a time when, in
despair, _and in disrepute_, he took to the woods and is yet to be
heard from. Opportunity still visits the neighborhood, but the path
leading to Mister Numbskull's home is grown up in weeds.
The fact is that our real opportunity _knocks from within_. Through
experience, built upon consecutively by continuous effort, our vision
expands and pounds its way out through the portals of our brain. We see
the thing that we ought to do and _we go to it_! To the man who didn't
see it _the opportunity did not exist_.
"What we don't know doesn't hurt us any"--so runs the old saw. And
here's a case where we who didn't see, _were_ hurt, but we didn't know
it.
For those of us who have vision there are all sorts of opportunities,
but many of them are not good for us. The ones we make for ourselves are
the healthy ones, and generally they are the best for us. "Our own baby"
is the one we will take the greatest pride in and enjoy the most. Then
we become masters of our own destiny in a sense and can be more
independent through having no senior partners in the enterprise. Often
our dreams bring forth a need for many kinds of special knowledge and
for these we go into the open market offering opportunity to many others
in return for their assistance. Thus we find that everything we do is in
relation to other things and dependent in part on other people.
This should make us careful and a wee bit wary. Opportunities are widely
divergent in nature--through a stroke of hard luck one might have
difficulty in finding employment. The first opportunity might lead to a
job in a bar-room, but having fortified ourselves by developing our
highest attributes such as honesty, integrity, cleanliness of body and
mind--we are able to somehow or other pinch along until something better
shows itself. First-class principles are not to be thrown away upon the
first provocation, therefore, in order to take away the temptation, we
might as well figure out that a great many employments in the world do
not represent _real opportunities_ and therefore should not be
considered.
Failure to seize such so-called opportunities becomes a virtue in the
same sense that the failure to seize a decent opportunity becomes a
shame.
Often opportunity comes through meeting men of affairs who have power
and wealth at their command. These are usually in connection with
enterprises of the greater magnitude. Those of us who have the power to
control our destinies to a reasonable degree should not stand back in
our support of these. If we have carefully built up our initiative,
self-reliance, preparedness in the way of efficiency, good health and
the will to do, there is no reason why we should not aspire to take a
hand in anything in which we are confident we can succeed. Among the men
who control the big affairs of the business world we find a true
democracy--_they want the man_. The fact that he appears before them
neatly attired, bright of eye and ready of wit will surely count in his
favor.
In other words, we should live up to the opportunity in whatever form it
presents itself after we have accepted its responsibilities. To make
this perfectly plain _we must live up to the job_! If we are to be
superintendent of a coal mine "underneath the ground" we will put on
our overalls and jumpers, but if we are to be manager of a grand opera
house we will appear in our dress suits. The thought is obvious, but as
we journey along we find many of our fellow mortals neglecting to live
in line with what they are doing.
We mention this fact hopeful that we will not fail to seize our
opportunities by setting up obstacles whereby we may become _persona non
grata_ through lack of discernment.
Opportunity is within ourselves and when we have seized our rightful
share, then we may look with pride upon our endeavor and proceed to
_laugh and live_!