When Opportunity Knocks – End of the Day for May 22, 2014

Back in January of this year I declared this A Year of Opportunity. You can read my complete Career Opportunities column of the same name and even view a video presentation I did for Tuesdays with Transitioners. The main focus of both of these is recognizing and accepting opportunity when it shows up. Too often we either don’t see the possibilities of an opportunity or simply reject it out of hand. I was reminded of this again today when an opportunity showed up out of the blue in Joseph’s life — and he almost did nothing about it.

The theater director had a friend who needed teenage voices for commercial voiceover job and offered up an audition to 5 of the kids in the school’s drama department. Of course, Joseph didn’t tell us until after we picked him up after another school event. For whatever reason, he couldn’t bring himself to grasp this opportunity when it arose. I would guess he was hit with the same issue that all of us face when opportunity suddenly drops into our lap — fear.

Joseph doing voice work at a friend’s annual Halloween reading

Luckily, he told us about this audition on the way home from school and, while we thought the opportunity was lost — we decided to call anyway and see if they were still available to meet. Rosanne, with her experience in the entertainment industry immediately dropped into “agent” mode, confirmed the meeting, got directions and sent us on our way. The office was quite close to home, so that made it even more convenient. A few minutes later and Joe was in the booth, getting the audition. We’ll find out tomorrow if they can use him, but even if not, I think it was a great experience for him. He might get some additional items for his resume, earn a little money and, most importantly, learn an important lesson about accepting the opportunities that come to him. Accept every opportunity that comes your way, even if it scares you little. It will be ok and might even be fun — if you let it.

I hope you can see the lesson here, too. Yes, I understand that opportunity can be frightening, but random opportunities can sometimes open up entire new worlds in our lives and careers. We have to steel ourselves against our fears and at least investigate these opportunities or, in most cases, they will be lost forever. It is so much better to live with your fears than live with the regrets of missed opportunities.

Previously on End of the Day: