SEE THE OPPORTUNITY, SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY
Every successful entrepreneur is, more or less, an opportunist. And I mean that in the best sense of the word.
An entrepreneur sees opportunity by building a business that’s focused on something different from what others are doing. Maybe he makes an existing product better. Maybe she takes an existing product and comes up with fresh new ways to use it. No matter the specifics, every entrepreneur looks to build a business that capitalizes on the opportunity he or she can see.
But some entrepreneurs go beyond that. For one thing, many entrepreneurs capture opportunity in circumstances that, to almost everyone else, don’t seem to be much of an opportunity at all. As I’ll share in the next chapter, I’m one of the entrepreneurs who was fortunate enough—and opportunistic enough—to make the most of a situation riddled with chaos and confusion.
Then there’s another kind of entrepreneur, one who recognizes that even the greatest ideas and business concepts aren’t necessarily overnight successes. They see that some businesses will take time to grow and prosper, and that it will be up to them to have the confidence and conviction to stand by their vision.
They’re what I refer to as the “not yet” entrepreneurs. What they see is no less real than immediate success, but success that’s going to take time to happen.
That offers all of us a lesson in persistence, one characterized by patience, commitment, and, perhaps most important, the understanding that success takes time and perspective. They’re as confident as the most impatient entrepreneur that success is on the way.
Just not now.