opportunity knocks ebook

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A personal note from Pat Mesiti

The book you have in your hands holds one of the most powerful keys that man has ever known. Life and success are about two types of people: those who take oppor tunities and those who don’t. Right now you have the oppor tunity to read this book and ignore its content. Reading it will help steer you on a course that will benefit you, your family and your friends. It may determine the difference between your financial future or failure. It may be the difference between a happy and fulfilled life or a disgruntled and despairing one. The oppor tunity is yours. It’s there for the taking.

Someone once said that many people do what children do at the sea shore: they get a handful of sand and let it slip through their fingers grain by grain. Don’t let this be the story of your life . Let the insides of this brief and often humorous book take you on a journey of discovery that can open the door to your extraordinar y life .

Pat Mesiti – author, speaker and prosperity activist – has a passion to bring out the best in people. He is a highly effective income acceleration coach. His passion is to equip and empower people to experience growth and prosperity by helping them to reach their full potential. Pat regularly speaks to sold-out audiences throughout the world and his books and materials have sold over two million copies.

ISBN No 0 9587336 1 9

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O P P O RT U N I T YO P P O RT U N I T Y

P A T M E S I T I

OpportunityKnocks

Open the Door toan Extraordinary Life

Pat Mesiti

1OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

opportunity knocks a 13/3/01 12:31 PM Page 1

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKSPat Mesiti

Published by Pat [email protected]

Cover art by Red Lounge Agencywww.redlounge.com.au

Printed in Australia by Griffi n Press

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise – without prior written permission of the publisher, except as

provided by Australian copyright law.

Words in capitals in bold or in quotations are the emphasis of the author. The words “him”, “his”, “he”, or “man” are sometimes used generically to describe people of

both genders.

Copyright © 2001 Pat Mesiti

Educational, MotivationalISBN 0-9587336-1-9

CONTENTS

IntroductionGrab Opportunities and Wring SuccessOut of Them! 1

Chapter OneWhat Does an Opportunity Look Like? 4

Chapter TwoMyths about Opportunity 18

Chapter ThreeThe Elements of Opportunity 29

Chapter FourNever, Never Say Die 42

Chapter FiveDecide to Decide to Be Decisive 52

Chapter SixDon’t Fear It, Face It! 63

Chapter SevenGiving 74

Chapter EightChange 85

Chapter NinePerseverance 91

3OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS


INTRODUCTION

Grab Opportunities and WringSuccess Out of Them!

Why is it that some people recognise opportunitiesand others don’t? It seems that successful peoplearound us manage to grab opportunities out of thin airand wring success out of them. If you are one of thosemillions of people around the world who are waitingfor an opportunity to take your life to another level,then this book is for you. This book will help youunderstand the elements of opportunity so that youcan achieve the greatest potential from it.

Opportunities come our way in various forms andsizes and often they are disguised. Most opportunitiesare “slippery little suckers”, as Julia Roberts said in themovie Pretty Woman.

1OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS


We’ve all faced opportunities in the past, fromchoosing school subjects and career paths, to life part-ners and business associates. In fact, opportunities arestaring at you right now, and will continue to chal-lenge you into the future. No period of time in historyholds a mortgage on opportunity: it exists in the past,present and future. And opportunity comes to us all.

The 21st century will offer you many new opportu-nities. The new millennium, still in its infancy, holdsa vast amount of opportunity for a wider audiencethan ever before. The early years of this century willdetermine whether you and your family progress andprosper or whether you become less than effective and,as a result, non-achievers. If you fall into the latter cat-egory, you will surely fail to gain the prosperity youdesire and deserve.

This book deals with the opportunities that comeacross our paths. How you handle these opportunitieswill determine your success or failure. How you handlelost opportunities, for instance, may well be the key toyour future. If you want to get the most out of theopportunities that come your way, you must knowwhat to do when you see one; in fact, you really needto know what an opportunity looks like. Quite oftenthey come surprise-packaged in the gift-wrapping ofsomething else.

Opportunity knocks. Can you hear it? If you can’tfirst hear it, you won’t open it … and it will move on.

I believe it was Milton Berle who once said, “Ifopportunity doesn't knock, build a door”. A door pro-vides an opportunity to us, that we may walk through

2 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS


it to a new phase in life, a new environment and amagnificent future.

Many people approach doorstimidly. Others walk rightthrough them. People in theformer group wait for anopportunity to knock, but theydon’t actually have a personaldoor to knock on. Very oftenthese same people have instead built walls – precon-ceptions about what an opportunity looks like. Forexample, if a secretary refuses to take the opportunityto learn computer skills because she has always used atypewriter, her wall of resistance and preconception –because she’s “always done it that way” – will hold herback from many opportunities for future employment.

However, to grasp the new opportunities that willcome your way, you must create a new mindset withinyourself and within the generations that will followyou. You must develop a willingness to take risks, tofind new ways of putting your dreams into motion, andto challenging the nine-to-five mentality that leavesus prisoners to debt. If you develop such a mindset,where time becomes a friend rather than a foe, you areheading down the path to success.

3OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

“If opportunitydoesn’t knock,build a door.”

Milton Berle


CHAPTER ONE

What Does an OpportunityLook Like?

The world is filled with unfortunate souls who didn’t hearopportunities knock at the door, because they were down

at the convenience store buying lottery tickets.

Napoleon Hill

How often in life have we noticed someone elseachieving great success, financial wealth and a greatlifestyle and called it luck? How often have we facedopportunities to create something better for ourselves,but rejected the opportunity we were given, simplybecause it didn’t look like an opportunity? (In fact,opportunity often looks more like a challenge.) Whensomeone else capitalizes and prospers on the opportu-



nity we passed over, we have the gall to call them‘lucky’. Opportunities get handed to us, but it is up tous to make them a reality. They don’t simply happenby themselves.

More often than not, opportunities come disguisedas problems. Chuck Swindoll has wisely observed,“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities,brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” Howtrue that simple statement is. Opportunity rarely evercomes emblazoned with a flashing neon sign. I haveheard it said that the bigger the opportunity the fasterit moves. Our attitude towards that fast moving oppor-tunity will determine whether we capitalize on it andmake something happen, or whether it passes us by,and let someone else take hold of it.

When Decca Records knocked back the opportuni-ty to sign the Beatles,because they didn’t like“their sound”, theyfailed to capitalize onthe fast-moving oppor-tunity that had come tothem. These fourLiverpool rockers sweptthe world, set atten-dance records, arearguably the greatestrock-and-roll band of all time, and their songs havebeen indelibly imprinted on the minds and hearts ofgenerations.

Let’s do a little exercise: finish these musical linesfrom some Beatles songs:

5WHAT DOES AN OPPORTUNITY LOOK LIKE?

“We are all facedwith a series of great

opportunities,brilliantly disguised

as impossiblesituations”

Chuck Swindoll


“She loves you…”

“I wanna hold your….”

“We all live in a….”

“Can’t buy me….”

“Let it….”

“Hey….”

Get the picture! Yet, Decca Records let it all slipthrough their fingers. The genius that bypassed theopportunity cost his company hundreds of millions ofdollars. With hindsight, we could say, “How stupid! Iwould have grabbed that opportunity?” Would you? Itneither looked nor sounded like an opportunity – justfour scruffy lads from the back streets of Liverpool withno hope and no obvious future – at least to some.

Consider Colonel Sanders. In fact, consider the2060 knock-backs of his secret recipe for chicken.Finally, on the 2061st knock-back, someone took ashot at the moving target, opened the door, and hitthe chicken in the tail. Along with those scatteredfeathers came billions of dollars, as literally millions ofchickens have laid down their lives to keep theColonel’s dream alive. (I believe most chickens are

born destined to fulfil theColonel's grand vision, and sodid he!)

Opportunities are not luck;they are taken. Opportunities


Opportunities arenot luck; they aretaken.


almost always look irrelevant. They often lookinsignificant, small and, frequently, challenging. Thegiant oak tree grows from a tiny acorn; however, youhave to first get an acorn. The potential of its great-ness lies in that acorn.Consider an apple. Youcan count the apple seedsin an apple, but you can-not count the apples inan apple seed. The les-son, friends, is that theopportunity before youmay not seem great now, but in the future it canbecome like a huge tree brimming with fruit.

When I began our nationally recognised youthorganisation, Youth Alive, in New South Wales(Australia), it did not look like a great opportunity; itlooked like a mess. What began as an insignificanthandful of teenagers has exploded to the point wheremore than 11,000 young people attended one meeting.Youth Alive now sees venues filled to capacity wher-ever it holds events throughout my home state of NewSouth Wales. That opportunity didn’t look anythinglike it does today. There were no leaders, very fewmusicians, no resources, no financial support, and onlythe seed of a dream.

Just recently, I had another opportunity to take overa drug recovery program, which, to put it mildly, was adisaster. It definitely didn’t look like an opportunity; itlooked like one massive headache. But it was in fact anopportunity, cleverly disguised as a complete mess.


The giant oak treegrows from a tiny

acorn; the potentialof its greatness lies

in that acorn.


Today, the program is flourishing: adult men are beingrehabilitated; the homeless are being housed; peopleare supporting it financially and with their time andskills. Why? They now see an opportunity – not anacorn, but an oak tree. Seventy-six young men havebeen through the program in 18 months and are ontheir way to a drug free life – their nightmares havebeen replaced by dreams.

If you take an opportunity when it’s an acorn, peo-ple will brag about what a great tree-grower you are.Famous US statesman, politician, jurist and humani-

tarian James F. Byrnesonce said, “Too manypeople are thinking ofsecurity instead ofopportunity.”

It is my experiencethat there are at least

six key signs that will reveal that what you may havebefore you is an opportunity rather than a problem. Torecognize an opportunity, you will have to:1. See the end, not the beginning.2. Get an opportunist’s mindset.3. Avoid looking for an easy way.4. Be prepared for your day of opportunity – because

it’s disguised as today!5. Make the most of every circumstance.6. Grasp it with both hands – i.e., wholeheartedlyand passionately.

Let’s see how these six vital signs of opportunitystack up in real life.


“Too many people arethinking of securityinstead of opportunity.”James F. Byrnes


See the End, Not the BeginningOpportunities are based on chance and choice: whenyou get a chance, make the choice! In other words,when opportunity knocks, you must choose whetherto let it come in. The ball is in your court. Dr MaxwellMaltz, in The Search for Self Respect, says, “You createopportunity. You develop the capacities for movingtoward opportunities. You turn crises into creativeopportunities, and defeats into successes, and frustra-tion into fulfilment.”

The first key, then, to recognizing opportunities is tobelieve that only you decide what is a problem andwhat is an opportunity. How you respond to circum-stances determines whether they become opportuni-ties to advance yourself, your career, and your lifestyle.But we must initiate and not procrastinate when wesee the potential in an opportunity. We must have asense of adventurerather than intimida-tion. Human naturetends to first reactwith intimidationrather than withadventure; intimida-tion’s primary role isto rob you of oppor-tunity.

However, if youperceive any chal-lenge as an adventurous process in which you canlearn and grow and thrive, then you will be in an


“You create opportunity.You turn crises into

creative opportunities,and defeats into

successes, andfrustration into

fulfilment.”Dr Maxwell Maltz


advantageous mindset to turn obstacles into opportu-nities. Let me illustrate this for you. Someone maycome to you with a brand new business opportunity. Itrequires time, effort and resources. In other words,there is an element of cost. What is your first response?Probably to get intimidated by the costs! Next youfind people around you who will confirm your worstfears. (We can always find experts lacking experiencewho will reinforce our intimidating fears.) Eventually,you will be turned against the very opportunity bywhich you might attain freedom, financial security,and many other benefits.

This happens in many areas of life, such as marriageor raising children. People often say, “Be careful of theterrible twos”. Others say, “How difficult it is to raisechildren in such a negative environment” or “Theteenage years are a nightmare full of rebellion andproblems, and then, when they get married and leavehome, your kids never think of you or visit; they aretoo busy for mum and dad, who did so much for them.”Let me ask you: with this kind of mindset, at whatpoint does raising children ever become a joy?

I have found that bringing up children is a chal-lenge, but not a nightmare. Sure, at two years of age,crawling into cupboards and pulling out the pots andpans, it’s hard to see the latent opportunity, but at leastyour kids are developing musical talent! As teenagersyour children will struggle with authority and inde-pendence, but you are bringing up an adult; it’s anopportunity to mould, teach and train. I’ve found thatbringing up children is fantastic. There may be ups



and downs, but that’s the process of growth. It’s anopportunity to invest in the future.

Apart from speaking to the corporate sector andtraining and mobilizing people, I oversee two of themost effective youth programs in the world. We regu-larly face difficult sit-uations with teens.However, I don’t seethe problems; I seethe incredible oppor-tunities in the poten-tial these young peo-ple have. They are acorns that will grow into oaks;they can turn their tragedies into triumphs. Let me putit to you simply: where you stand determines what yousee. If you look for opportunity, you will find it every-where. You determine opportunity.

Get an Opportunist’s MindsetThe second rule to recognizing an opportunity is yourcircumstance. With opportunity it is possible to con-ceive how, through a systematic plan and the rightattitude, you can benefit from your circumstances.Find the win in any situation and you have found anopportunity. In other words, if you determine the differ-ence between opportunity and problem, then any-thing can have a win in it – every cloud can have a sil-ver lining. Opportunities come, and they may not beour preferred option, but the win is found in takingadvantage of every situation to enhance your ownexperience.


If you look for opportunity, you will

find it everywhere. Youdetermine opportunity.


Motivational writer O.S. Marden has said, “There ispower lying latent everywhere, waiting for the obser-vant eye to discover it.” I recently read that in 1948,Gene Autry was looking for a Christmas song tomatch the success of his popular 1947 song, HereComes Santa Claus. Apparently Autry wanted to cuttwo records and needed four songs, but he only hadthree. Around that time a young New York songwritersent him the lyrics and music for Rudolph the Red NosedReindeer. Autry thought the song silly, but his wife

loved it. In the finalrecording session herecorded the song. Thatsimple song, whichAutry almost discarded,went on to sell two-and-a-half million copies thatyear alone. Since then,Rudolph has been record-ed by over 400 artists in

almost every language and has sold in excess of 100million copies. That’s what I call seeing the win. Hedidn’t see it, but his wife did. How many times doesthis happen every day?

Inventor, Thomas Edison, has this story, told by hisson, to illustrate what I am saying about seeing thewin. Edison’s entire laboratory, experiments andresearch one day burst into flames. His son Charles,concerned for his father’s well-being, immediatelyrushed to his side, worrying that his father would be intorment and grief for all his research, study and exper-


“There is power lyinglatent everywhere,waiting for theobservant eye todiscover it.”O.S. Marsden


iments. “Quick,” said his father, “go and get yourmother!” Charles Edison wondered why he should dothat. When he asked why, the old inventor said, “Tellher to hurry, she’ll never see a fire this big again.” Butthat’s not the end of the story. The next day as Edisonwalked through the ashes and rubble, he began to saywith great excitement, “Thank God! Thank God! Theworld will never know all of my mistakes and failures;they are burnt and gone forever.” That’s seeing thewin!

Assuming you encounter a challenge on your way tofame, as Edison did, and you face rejection, loss, an up-hill climb, will you see the win in the cost? Or will youonly see the loss? Every day, opportunity cries out tous, but like I said, it is often disguised. It is up to youto recognize it as opportunity.

Imagine for a moment that someone came to youand said that you have the potential to start your ownbusiness, that you could make money from it, and thatthey’d show you how. What would go through yourmind? You might count the cost: time, effort, hardwork on top of your regular job, sacrifices etc. but, youmight also look for the win: extra income, friendships,and personal growth.

Avoid Looking for an Easy WayThe third key is to see in every circumstance thepotential to fulfil your life vision. Opportunity isalways a gift that creates for us the chance to be abovenot beneath, the head not the tail, victorious and notdefeated.



But opportunities will not always be easy to handle.So don’t look for the easy way with an opportunity, go

with the hard way!Too many peoplethink an opportunityshould simply drop intheir lap, but opportu-nities are shaped andcreated by the ways inwhich we approachthem. You will never –I repeat NEVER – ful-

fil your life vision if you go the easy way. Dream big dreams for yourself and go the difficult

route. American poet, Robert Frost, so aptly put it inhis well-known poem The Road Not Taken:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair…

The poem ends with:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Don’t go the road that all the punters are going –because you’ll glean the same results as them!


“Two roads diverged ina wood, and I took theone less traveled by,And that has made allthe difference.”Robert Frost


Be Prepared for Your Day of OpportunityYour opportunity day is today. There is no shortage ofopportunities in the world; only a shortage of oppor-tunists – people who are ready with both hands to grabthe opportunities that come their way. I once heard amotivational speaker make a very telling point: whileevery day, billions of people around the planet sit cry-ing over their soup bowls, saying no good thing evercame their way – trillions of dollars of economic activ-ity literally zap andzoom around theplanet. If you wantsome of those dollars,the speaker said, allyou have to do isstick your hand outand grab them. And he’s right! Today is your day ofopportunity!

Make the Most of Every CircumstanceJoni Erikson-Tada was confined to a wheelchairthrough a tragic accident. In the midst of her pain andsuffering, she began to develop the skill of paintingusing only a brush held in her teeth. Now, each yearshe speaks to literally thousands of people, givingthem hope in the midst of their pain – all because shesees opportunity as a gift through which we maybecome what we are destined to be.

Successful people have a way of capitalizing onopportunities, to shape them and to form them into agift that can benefit themselves and others. That’s the


There is no shortage ofopportunities in the

world; only a shortageof opportunists.


beauty of opportunity. Disguised as hardship, nuisanceand pain, as it so often is, it becomes opportunitywhen we approach it from the right angle.

Helen Keller, who was asked what could be worsethan being blind, said, “Being able to see, but havingno vision”. Do you think that statement would be aspowerful if she had physical sight? She sees the cir-cumstance of her blindness as a gift to become a betterperson.

Grasp Your Opportunity with Both HandsOpportunities wait for no one. You must be diligent,circumspect and eager. Grasp the opportunities thatcome your way! Make them your own and run withthem. Opportunity is everywhere, but it’s up to you tograb an opportunity when you see it.

In this chapter, I have outlined the six keys for iden-tifying an opportunity. I hope I have convinced youthat anything can be an opportunity. No circumstancein which you find yourself needs to be a problem; onthe contrary, if responded to correctly, every situationhas supernatural potential latent within it. The key isyour attitude (and response); whether you see a win init and are prepared to do the hard yards. The key is to

recognize the giftnature of opportunity:that opportunities existtoday and that it is upto you to grab them!You have ‘gifted’opportunities in life,


Don’t wait for the boatto dock - make a‘splash’ by swimmingout to meet it.


and it is up to you to choose to make them work foryou.

Now is the opportune time for anything. Thingshappen at ‘opportune’ moments – not necessarily atconvenient moments. If you wait for the right time,the perfect setting, the right feeling, when all thepieces are in place – you’ll still be waiting this timenext century. Opportunity will pass you by. Don’t waitfor the boat to dock – make a ‘splash’ by swimming outto meet it.



CHAPTER TWO

Myths about OpportunityOpportunism is the practice of taking advantage of any

opportunity to gain money or power for yourself.

Collins Australian Dictionary

When you first read the above quote, you could betempted to see it in a negative light – that oppor-tunism is somehow something devious, underhanded,sneaky and to be viewed with suspicion. When I readthe quote, I see opportunism and opportunity as ameans to create a more meaningful, prosperous andinfluential life, for others and myself.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to gain moremoney or power – these things in themselves are notgood or bad. Power, money, influence and success takeon the characteristics of the people who have them.



We should place opportunities and a sense of oppor-tunism into the hands of good people, with fair-mind-ed intentions, who desire to be a good influence,rather than allowing money, power, influence, wealthand creativity to fall into the hands of the wrong peo-ple.

There are five myths about opportunity I will out-line in this chapter. These simple misunderstandingstempt us away from opportunities to create success forourselves. By having and maintaining an inadequateview of opportunities, we cheat ourselves and miss outon many good things that could be ours.

The Moral Bankruptcy Argument

You Must Be Doing It WrongThe first of these myths about opportunity is that ifyou take up an opportunity, you are somehow perceived tobe morally bankrupt. This is obviously not the case.How you use your opportunities, however, will reflectthe type and quality of person you are. The failure totake opportunities is far more serious than actuallytaking them, provided,of course, that theopportunities we takeare good, productiveand helpful. Not takingsuch opportunities maybe seen as laziness ordisinterest.

It seems to me morally wrong for good people not to

19MYTHS ABOUT OPPORTUNITY

Dietrich Bonhofferwrote that for evil men

to triumph, all goodpeople have to do is

… nothing!


take opportunities for money, power and influence.Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that for evil men to tri-umph, all good people have to do is … nothing!

In 415 BC, the Greek historian, Thucydides, wrote,“Wealth to us is not a mere material for vainglory butan opportunity for achievement, and poverty – wethink it no disgrace to acknowledge but a real degra-dation to make no effort to overcome”. Let me say itin plain 21st-century language: people find it easier to

put down wealth andaffluence instead ofhelping others to getout of circumstances ofpoverty and hardship.It’s easy to criticize thewealthy, but the rich,by being opportunists,generally create oppor-tunities for themselves

and others to overcome poverty.Bill Gates III, for example, is a very wealthy man.

How many other people has he made wealthy oremployed, and how many other businesses have bene-fited and derived opportunities from Microsoft prod-ucts and/or its associated companies? Literally hun-dreds of thousands! Try imagining today’s life withoutWindows!

Opportunity DiscriminatesThis leads me to the second myth, that somehowopportunity is discriminating in whom it chooses to bless.


“Wealth to us is not amere material forvainglory but anopportunity forachievement …”Thucydides


We talk about these people as being ‘lucky’. I love thisquote: “Success is a matter of luck; ask any failure!” Infact, opportunity is no respecter of persons; it respectsprinciples, such as making the most of circumstances!

Samuel Goldwin, the film and media mogul, oncesaid, “I think luck is the essence to recognise an oppor-tunity and the ability to take advantage of it. Everyonehas had breaks, but everyone also has opportunities.The man who can smile at his breaks and grab hischances [opportunities] gets on.” Oprah Winfrey saysit more succinctly but with equally force, “Luck is amatter of preparation meeting opportunity”.

In our modern world, people are waiting for theirboat to come in – the lottery ticket, the ‘sure thing’ atthe track, an inheritance through a hated old auntwho dies suddenly andprecipitously (andmysteriously after youcooked for her!) in hersleep. But did youknow that accordingto the best-sellingbook, The MillionaireNext Door, 80 percentof America’s millionaires are first-generation rich;two-thirds are self-employed. They did not inheritopportunity; they created it. They do not feel sorry forthemselves for not being born ‘successful’; they merelychange their circumstances through positive action.Do you get the point!


“I think luck is theessence to recognise

an opportunity and the ability to take

advantage of it”Samuel Goldwin


Opportunity is PerpetualThe third myth about opportunity is that my opportu-nity will always be there. No opportunity is ever perma-nent. I catch planes on a weekly basis. Upon arrival atthe airport I am issued a boarding pass, which gives methe opportunity to catch my plane. The airline gener-

ally issues a boarding call,but if I fail to board, theairline usually gives botha final and then a person-al boarding call. If theplane is due to leave at10.00 am, but I don’tboard within ten minutesor so of that time, the air-line will generally releasemy seat to another pas-senger on standby, wait-ing for his or her oppor-tunity to board. Not onlywill I miss my flight,

missing it will throw into chaos my day, my plans andmy life! All because I thought I could board at anytime, at my leisure. That is a huge mistake. KingSolomon said, “Time and chance happen to us all”.Make sure that when it’s your time, you take yourchance.

Opportunity makes itself available to you: if youdon’t take it, somebody else will. Now is the time tomake the most of opportunities – not next week ornext year. “Opportunities are never lost,” an anony-


Eighty percent ofAmerica’smillionaires are first-generation rich; two-thirds areself-employed. Theydid not inherit opportunity; theycreated it.


mous saying goes, “The other fellow takes those youmiss”. Opportunity sits around waiting for no-one. Itmoves on.

Past Failure Prevents Opportunity

Turning Disadvantage to AdvantageThe fourth myth about opportunity is that today’s greatopportunity is hindered or robbed by yesterday’s failures. Infact, today is a new day! Let me give you an example.My good friend and renowned South African speaker,Andre Olivier, has written about Charles Steinmetz,whom he calls “an electrical genius”:

He [Steinmetz] one of the founding fathers of thecolossal General Electric, was crippled from birth. Hisbody was grotesque; he was so short in stature that helooked like a dwarf; he was a hunchback.

His mother died before he was one-year-old. Hisfather was comparatively poor, but was determinedthat as far as possible, young Charles would have athorough education. He could not play normal gamesas other boys did, so he decided to devote himself toscience. His theme of life was “I will make discoveriesthat will help other people”.

When he migrated to the United States, he couldnot speak a word of English. His face was swollenfrom the cold he endured on the trip; his sight defec-tive; his dwarf stature and misshapen body coupledwith shabby dress tempted Port authorities to returnhim to Switzerland. Charles stayed; he got an oppor-



tunity to work a $12-dollar-a-week job. The infantcompany that employed him, called General Electric,realized that they had a genius, an expert in the field ofelectricity. His career was marked by research anddevelopment that even to this day inspires many.When he died in 1923, they said, “This deformedhunchback had the mind of an angel and the soul of aseer.”

This story illustrates how failures, physical handicapsor emotional struggles should never stop us from grab-bing opportunities and making a better tomorrow.Tragic pasts make great testimonials for the future.

From Slavery to FreedomIn his book, Will Daylight Come?, Robert Heffler tellsthe following moving story. There was a little boy outplaying in the woods. He had been given a slingshot,but he could never hit his intended targets. As he waswalking home, he swung his slingshot and accidental-ly killed his grandmother’s duck. He was greatly dis-

turbed, so he hid theduck, but then henoticed that his sisterhad seen everything.She remained silent.Later, their grand-mother asked his sis-ter to do the dishes.His sister said,“Johnny wants to do


The tendency of humannature is to enslave usto our past fears,failures and problems,rather than to launchout to new opportunities.


the dishes.” She then whispered to Johnny,“Remember the duck!” The next day their grandfatherasked them to go fishing, but grandmother said, “Ineed someone to help me with supper!” The boy’s sis-ter declared, “Oh, Johnny would like to do that,” andshe whispered, “Remember the duck!” Then she wentfishing. After a week of torment, Johnny confessed tohis grandmother, and she said, “I know. I saw every-thing. I forgive you. I was just wondering how longyou’d let your sister make you a slave to your past.”

The tendency of human nature is to enslave us toour past fears, failures and problems, rather than allow-ing us to be freed, and to launch out to new opportu-nities. Perhaps in the past we have suffered rejection,so getting involved in a new business venture thatinvolves taking a bold step raises fears. I know manypeople in the business world who, through fear ofrejection, have carried their fears of that into the pre-sent, and missed the opportunities that could havepropelled them into an incredible future.

No Hard WorkThe fifth myth about opportunity is that successful peo-ple replace skill and hard work with opportunism, when infact the opposite is true. An old saying goes, “Theharder I work, the luckier I get!”

There is a story told ofan art lover who watchedthe great Picasso paint apicture in a matter of afew hours. The art lover


An old saying goes,“The harder I work,

the luckier I get!”


commented how great it must be to be able to paint apainting and create something that is a masterpiece insuch a short period of time. Picasso replied, “Youweren’t there to watch the 40 years of work that wentinto my art.”

Opportunism Never Replaces Skill and DiligenceI am an avid fan of Italian soccer. Because I’m anItalian fan, I am going to take this opportunity to saythat Italian soccer is the best in the world. Everybodyin Italy is an expert – from the sidelines! In the lastWorld Cup, a young Australian-Italian, calledChristian Vieri, stormed onto the world stage by con-tinually scoring goals. One of my friends, an Italian ofcourse, said to me, “Vieri is not a great player; he’s justan opportunist!” What a stupid thing to say!

Let me get this straight: the whole idea of the gameof soccer is to kick the ball past the defence, whileovercoming tackles, avoiding the off-side trap, andwhile running at unbelievable speed, in front of100,000 people and millions watching on TV, fol-lowed by a lynch-mob in the Italian sports media,finally putting the ball with pin-point accuracy pastthe goalkeeper and into your opponent’s net. I thoughtthis was the whole idea – to score goals! Apparently,according to my friend, it isn’t.

If Christian Vieri listened to the bantering of peoplesuch as my friend, when the ball is passed to him andhe has an opportunity to score, he would ask himself,“What will people think?” and graciously return theball to the opposition, and then apologize for the



inconvenience of making them run to him to get theball! Why? He doesn’t want to be an opportunist! Let’sbe serious, shall we? The whole idea is to seize youropportunity and make it count.

You can apply these principles to sports, businessand life. The good Book says, “As we have opportuni-ty, let us do good … ”.Opportunities come andwill continue to come, ifwe make the most ofthem. If Christian Vierigot the ball and did notscore or attempt to score,he wouldn’t last in thegame. That is why manypeople in the game of lifefail to win – they don’ttake advantage of their opportunities.

We all know that marriage, like all relationships, hasits struggles. However, when opportunity arises toromance, to give a gift, to give a word of encourage-ment to your partner or spouse, if you have the ideathat your partner or spouse will perceive you as anopportunist, you will never build an open and caringrelationship. Here’s the difference between those whoare accused of being opportunistic and the spectatorswho wait for it all to happen – the opportunist takesthe opportunity, makes the most of the opportunityand gets given more opportunities, while the spectatorjust criticizes from the lounge chair.

All these myths will rob you of opportunity. Take


The opportunist takesthe opportunity,

makes the most ofthe opportunity and

gets given moreopportunities.


the initiative. It’s not a matter of luck. Remainingcrippled by your past or having fear of being perceivedas an opportunist will make you unsuccessful, butavoiding the myths, taking the initiative and capital-izing on your opportunities will bring you success. Inthe words of Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s, “Alittle initiative will improve your luck nine days out often”.

Just remember, people who hang on to myths rarelyembrace opportunities.



CHAPTER THREE

The Elements of OpportunityMany do with opportunities as children do

at the seashore. They fill their little hands with sand,and then let the grains fall through one by

one, until they’re all gone.

Thomas Jones

Rita Coolidge has rightly said: “Too often, opportuni-ty knocks, but by the time you push back the chain,push back the bolt, unhook the two locks and shut offthe burglar alarms, it’s too late.” The motto is “be likethe boy scouts” – be prepared!

Being prepared is a key factor to making the most ofopportunities. It is easy to forget how important prepa-ration is. Here, the visionary boat-builder, known to usas Noah, should be our guide. Remember, it wasn't

29OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS


raining when Noah built the ark. In fact he was pre-pared, in spite of not even knowing what rain was.(Some would say Noah was blessed in being blissfullyignorant of what rain was – he had no preconceptionsor fears.)

Preparation will help you to be ready for opportuni-ty when it comes; rather than being preoccupied bypreconceptions of what opportunity is or isn’t, you’llbe productive.

When I received my first opportunity to speak, some20 years ago, I was prepared. I didn’t have time tothink, “This is not really what I’m looking for,” simplybecause it wasn’t as large as I envisioned my future tobe. I took it. More recently, I spoke to an audience of60,000 people in the United States of America. I was

so good, I bought myown tapes and books!This did not just hap-pen; I’ve been in prepa-ration for today’sopportunities all mylife. Yesterday, I wasmaking myself ready.

In this chapter, wewill consider the ele-ments – the key factors– that will help us makethe most of the oppor-

tunities that knock on our doors. These factors are notexhaustive, though you will find that many are essen-tial to making the most of your opportunities.


“Too often, opportuni-ty knocks, but by thetime you push backthe chain, push backthe bolt, unhook thetwo locks and shut offthe burglar alarms, it’stoo late.”Rita Coolidge


Making the Most of Time

Live Like a ChampionThe first element to grasping opportunities is makingthe most of time. Champion boxer, Muhammad Ali,said this: “I hated every minute of the training, but Isaid, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of yourlife as a champion!’” Many people want instant fulfil-ment or gratification. Instant gratification generallylasts as long as the gratifying event; it’s short term.Rare is the overnight success, the instant millions – asquickly as these come, they go.

I was working in my garden recently and one of myinterns was workingwith me. As westopped for a briefdrink, he looked atme, with my shovelin my hand, andasked, “Pat, whendoes serving stop?When can I do whatyou do?” I’m sure ifI’d decapitated himthat day, God would have quickly forgiven me. Heseemed to think that everything came instantly. Toooften we look at successful people and say, “That’swhat I want to be!” We see the snapshot of the now.What we should see is the movie of the whole life!This takes time.

It takes time to grow. It takes time to prepare. It

31THE ELEMENTS OF OPPORTUNITY

“I hated every minute ofthe training, but I said,‘Don’t quit. Suffer now

and live the rest of yourlife as a champion!’ ”

Muhammad Ali


takes time to learn. It also takes time to reach the nextstage, to win the race. We must remember that successis a marathon, not a sprint. Time tests and proves whatwe really are. Over time the cream always rises to the

top.Time affects different

things in different ways. Forinstance, time affects milkin a certain way (just go toyour fridge and check!) andwine in another. The com-mon element is time, but

the reaction is determined by the make-up of the prod-ucts.

A Tale of Three MenLet me illustrate. In 1945, three outstanding and gift-ed speakers thundered across America. Have you everheard of Chuck Templeton? How about BrianClifford? Does Billy Graham ring any bells?

All three contemporary speakers were gifted, elo-quent and powerful. It was said of Templeton that hewas the most gifted and talented preacher in America.“He would be the next Babe Ruth in the Church”,trumpeted an influential magazine. It was said ofClifford that he was the most powerful speaker in cen-turies; people lined up outside auditoriums ten deep,and 12 hours before his scheduled appearance, just tohear him speak. In 1945, at Baylor University, thepresident ordered the bells to be turned off, so thatClifford could speak without interruption. He spoke


Success is amarathon, not asprint. Time testsand proves whatwe really are.


for two hours and 15 minutes and kept the audiencespellbound. He touched more lives, influenced moreleaders and set more attendance records than any manin his day. He was even offered a movie role in TheRobe. Billy Graham, by contrast, was almost ignoredand was simply called “puffing Billy”.

By 1950, just five years later, Templeton abandonedthe ministry for radio and TV work. By 1954, Cliffordlost his family, his health and his life. Alcohol haddestroyed him. At 35years of age, he wasfound dead in a run-down hotel room inAmarillo, Texas.Within ten short years,only one of the threestill had his life ontrack, and BillyGraham, regardless of religious, political or socialbackground, is consistently noted as one of the mostinfluential and honourable men of all time. Time willtell how you respond to challenges, problems andopportunity. What’s inside you will come out overtime.

Success takes time, so we should be faithful with thelittle opportunities that come and prove ourselvesworthy of greater opportunities.

FocusThe second element is focus. What is focus? If youconsider many of history’s great people, you will find


Be faithful with thelittle opportunities that

come and proveourselves worthy of

greater opportunities.


that they were known for what they focused on. Inother words, what you give your attention to.

Isn’t it amazing that some people start life with justa few pennies in their bank, and go on to build incred-ible wealth because they give it attention. Other peo-ple can start out with huge amounts of money, perhapsan inheritance, yet over time, because they don’t giveit attention, they squander their wealth. What you payattention to will cause you to progress.

Priority Doesn’t Happen by Chance, but by ChoiceSimilarly, what you pay attention to becomes your pri-ority. We choose our priorities. We have to chooseeach day to pursue our opportunity. In 1999, I had theprivilege of being at an event with prominent

Australian performer,John Farnham. As Iwatched him sing, hewas passion personified.What energy and feel-ing! It was obvious hehad committed himselfto making the most ofhis gift. He had madesinging a priority in hislife and his gift wasflourishing.

Like John’s singing,whatever you make a

priority will grow. You can tell your priorities by whattime you spend, effort you make, thoughts you have,


Whatever you make apriority will grow. Youcan tell your prioritiesby what time youspend, effort youmake, thoughts youhave, and the passionyou execute on thethings in your life.


and the passion you execute, on the things in your life.While what you pay attention to grows, likewise

what you ignore dies. In working with people withaddictions, I’ve discovered that the more someonethinks about a problem or an addiction, the moreprone they are to grow it. We should be vigilant to payno attention to the things in our lives that we wouldrather die than continue to grow.

We must learn to focus on what we can influence.All of us can influence family, friends, and even soci-ety. Generally that influence will come out of ourstrength. Most people try to focus on areas of theirlives where they have verylittle strength or ability.The result is that they don’tbecome an influence. Notonly do they lack influence,they often fail and there-fore lose focus.

Many will rememberMichael Jordan’s attempt tomove into baseball. WhileMichael is a phenomenalbasketball player, nobody wanted to ‘be just like Mike’when it came to baseball. Why? It was the wrongfocus.

When you focus, when all your energies cometogether at a focal point, great things happen. Yourfocused efforts will bring productivity. Let me illus-trate. Mother Theresa was a great humanitarian. Butshe didn’t work with every single needy person. She


When you focus,when all your

energies cometogether at a focalpoint, great things

will happen.


focused on one core group of people in Calcutta. Outof that focal point, she became an influence on theplanet. Mother Theresa could only be in one place atone time. Yet when she focused on something, she wasable to influence many people in many places at anytime. But the key was focus. Another example is BillGates III of Microsoft. He focused on software - notmaking computers - and his company has become adriving force in the new economy.

One dictionary defines focus as “The ability todefine, to adjust one’s eyes so that the image is clear”.Focus helps you adjust your thinking and your

strengths so somethingnot only becomes clearbut achievable in yourlife. You’ll only succeedwith the opportunitiesthat you focus on. You’reonly able to hit the tar-gets you truly aim at.

You can only be aninfluence in the area that you focus. Why is TigerWoods so great at what he does? The answer is focus.Why are people successful in many fields of life andinfluential in those areas? Because they focus. Focusalso gives you an advantage of becoming skilled and anexpert at what you do.

The Extra MileThe third element is the principle of the extra mile.Success, wealth and influence are never built on the


You’ll only succeedwith the opportuni-ties that you focuson. You’re only ableto hit the targets youtruly aim at.


average. They are always built on going the extra mile.If you only do what you’ve always done, you’ll alwaysget what you’ve always had. So if you want to makethe most of an opportunity, you’ve got to go the extramile, not just do what everybody else does.

Someone once commented that of all the faults inhuman beings the one we excuse most easily is idle-ness. Idleness won’t bring about achievement. Theextra mile will.

Procrastination Assassinates OpportunityWhat are some enemies of the extra mile? Idleness andprocrastination! Constantly putting something offrather than going the extra mile to achieve, will assas-sinate dreams, hopes, visions, wealth and even wellbeing.

For example, if someone gave you the opportunity tojoin a gym, all expenses paid, with your own personaltrainer, would you do as most people would – declarewhat a great opportunity it was and then put off start-ing until tomorrow? Would you go the extra mile – getup early, get yourself dressed, brave the cold and put inthe hard yards? The opportunity is there, the trainer isthere, and the gym is there. It’s all there. The onlything stopping taking full advantage of the opportuni-ty is procrastination. Idleness kills opportunity. Ratherthan sit back, go the extra mile and take the opportu-nity.

Laziness is another enemy of the extra mile. The lazyare always wanting to do something, when all theyneed to do is take the opportunities they have and go



the extra mile with them. Laziness will always leaveyou wanting, but never doing. One thing is certain, ifyou overcome laziness and go the extra mile, you’ll beon your way to making the most of your opportunity.The extra mile, my friends, is not a cluttered highway.At times it can be a very lonely road, but its rewardsfar outweigh those of the cluttered highways of indif-ference, idleness and procrastination.

There is a great story in our Australian history.Many of you may not be aware that the liberation ofBeersheba in the Middle East came about by the brav-ery of 800 Light Horsemen. It was a victory thatNapoleon could not achieve. Nor could the combinedEuropean armies of 11 different Crusades. Instead, theseemingly impossible happened when a group of youngmen literally went the extra mile.

Someone once said to me that the reason theAustralians took Beersheba is that it is prefixed withthe word ‘beer’. Whilst I don’t doubt that, I want youto read their story written by my friend Col Stringer.

Light Horsemen Liberate JerusalemThe youngest nation on earth liberated the capital ofone of the oldest nations on earth, Jerusalem, whichhad been under Muslim rule for almost 1600 years.

In the First World War 800 Australian LightHorsemen spearheaded the liberation of the HolyLand and God's chosen city – Jerusalem – fromalmost 1600 years of Muslim rule and domination.

In the Middle East, the Turks held the fortresses ofGaza-Beersheba. Any attacking army had to travel



several days through the waterless Sinai desert undermerciless sun, even to start an attack on Beersheba.

All the Turks had to do was hold off an attack forone day before the attackers would have run out ofwater and began to die in the desert heat, as had hap-pened to many other armies throughout history.

Unlike cavalry of the Middle Ages, the LightHorsemen ride to the battle, dismount and fight theenemy on foot. And that is what the enemy expected.

The Light Horsemen lived by an unwritten code ofethics; you never left a 'mate' no matter what the cost!They were characterised by an ability to think and actfor themselves under pressure. They sought out oppor-tunity to beat the odds.

The Light Horsemen had to attempt what wasunheard of in modern warfare, a cavalry charge across6 kilometres of flat terrain straight into the machineguns and artillery canons of the 4500 enemy soldiers.

As the sun set, in the dying moments of October31, 1917, the Light Horsemen seized the opportunityand charged!

The speed and tenacity of the charge took the enemyby surprise. The sights on artillery and guns couldn'tbe altered fast enough and shells and bullets whizzedover the heads of the charging Australians.

The Australian Light Horsemen achieved what 11different ancient crusades, with the combined armiesof five European nations, could not do. They achievedwhat the greatest military genius of his day, Napoleon,could not do, what 58,000 British troops could notdo.



The first squadrons of Light Horsemen charged onover the enemy’s trenches straight on to Beersheba.For the first time in 400 years they had opened theroad to Jerusalem.

Eight hundred men spearheaded the defeat of anarmy and started the liberation of Jerusalem. Theyended 1600 years of tyranny against Christians andJews.

Later in Jerusalem a young ANZAC soldierclimbed to the top of the Tower of David and unfurleda Jewish flag for the first time in centuries.

One of my favourite quotes from Winston Churchillis this one: “Continuous effort, not strength or intelli-gence, is the key to unlocking your potential.” It’s notthe ‘have-a-shot-at-one-thing-once’ that gets you tosuccess. Can you imagine if you approached marriagelike that? You can’t build a great marriage out of oneconversation, one gift. It’s a continual effort. It’s a con-tinual communication. Marriages need constant mon-itoring, maintaining, going the extra mile, perseveringthrough the hardships. The strength of a marriage is

formed in times of perse-verance and stick-abili-ty, not when every-thing’s going well.

Consider the dia-mond. The diamond isugly carbon made beau-tiful and priceless underpressure over time. Our


“Continuous effort,not strength orintelligence, is the keyto unlocking yourpotential.”Winston Churchill


character becomes equally priceless if we stick it outthrough the hard times. Napoleon Hill said, “Effortonly fully releases its reward after a person refuses toquit.”



CHAPTER FOUR

Never, Never, Say DieGenius, a power that dazzles humans,

is oft but perseverance in disguise.

H.W. Austin

Humans tend to lose easily and win through effort andhard work. Most often when someone remarks, “I wishI had that opportunity”, they really mean they missedthe same opportunity. Missing out, however, doesn’tmean the end. It can always become a new beginning.

In 1996, Greg Norman, the great Australian golfer,known affectionately as the ‘Great White Shark’, wason target to win the US Open. It was a feat that,despite a winning career, he had not yet achieved.Norman was well ahead of the other players. Themedia were certain of his pending victory, when inex-



plicably his game fell apart and the famous green jack-et eluded him again. The next day the newspaperheadlines ran: “The Shark Can’t Swim”, “The SharkSinks”, and “The Shark’s Lost His Bite”. At the end ofit all he said this: “I’m a winner. I lost today, but I’mnot a loser in life. I’ve won tournaments and I’ve losttournaments. Maybe something good is waiting tohappen. This is just a test.”

Norman understood that the loss of one opportuni-ty didn’t mean the loss of all opportunity. Opportunityabounds. So you lost an opportunity; well get readybecause there is anoth-er one not far off.

Today, with thechanges in the waypeople are doing busi-ness, opportunityabounds for everybodyto be successful. Weneed to understandthat those who makethe most of opportuni-ty, HAVE made the most of their opportunities, so it’snot too late to begin to find an opportunity now. Theyhaven’t procrastinated on opportunities. While suc-cessful people go out after their opportunity, most oth-ers are waiting for their chance to come to them.

Opportunities, in fact, are never lost – the other guygets all the ones you miss! So if you don’t want to con-tinue to miss them, you’ve got to make some decisions.Decide you will not miss your next opportunity.

43NEVER, NEVER, SAY DIE

While successfulpeople go out after

their opportunity, mostothers are waiting fortheir chance to come

to them.


Decide you will prepare for your next opportunity.Decide you will not give up.

Beverley Sills, the operatic soprano, beautifullysummed up many people’s fear of failure when she said,“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you’redoomed if you don’t try.” Any person who chooses notto quit their dream is already on the verge of breakinginto new levels of opportunity and success. I love thisbrilliant quote by renowned anthropologist WilliamStrong, “The only time you don’t fail is the last timeyou try anything and it works.” Most people give up anopportunity without even trying it. They give inbefore they even give themselves a chance to makethe most of an opportunity.

So what does it take to not be a quitter? A mind thatis resolved! It is amazing what our minds can resolveto do and not do. Developing a mindset that will notgive up helps us get over the past to score goals in life.Author and commentator George E. Woodbury said,“Defeat is not the worst of failures, not to have tried istrue failure.”

Here are three keys to help you resist the urge toquit.

Keep TryingThe first key is, if you’ve failed, keep trying. Before anygreat discovery in the field of medicine, or any healingof physical ailments, there is one common element –all have been preceded by failure. Scientists, doctorsand healers all had failures before they had success.But the other thing they have in common is they did



not give up. Ed Fredrick Douglas, US civil libertarian,put it this way: “Withouta struggle there can beno progress.” Oftentimes, the greater thestruggle, the greater andsweeter the victory.

What joy would therebe if the journey to ourachievements were just aluxury cruise? Absolutelynone! Great joy comesout of struggle andachievement – that feel-ing of self worth one gets after doing what otherscouldn’t do or said was impossible. When they failedand quit, you didn’t give up. Endurance is one of thegreatest qualities in non-quitters. Develop the ability,like the rubber ball, to keep bouncing back. Britishsocial reformer, Thomas Buxton, said, “With ordinarytalent and extraordinary perseverance all things areattainable.”

My friend, Brian Houston, international speakerand pastor of Australia’s largest church, says there arethree ways people learn in life. The best way to learnis through other people’s mistakes. The second-bestway to learn is learn from your own mistakes. And thethird way people learn? According to Brian, the worstway to learn – people don’t learn from anyone’s mis-takes or their own mistakes. My friends, don’t repeatthe mistakes of other people; they missed their day of


Before any greatdiscovery in the fieldof medicine, or anyhealing of physical

ailments, there isone common ele-

ment - all have beenpreceded by failure.


opportunity – don’t miss yours! Learn from your ownmistakes.

How many opportunities have you missed? Askyourself – is there a possibility I can go back and takethat opportunity? If there is, do it. Right now, some-one probably has created an opportunity for you. Areyou taking it, or are you missing it? Don’t repeat thesame mistakes – missing opportunities and letting

them go by. Learn fromthose mistakes. It is atragedy that some peo-ple don’t take heed oftheir own or anyoneelse’s mistakes. Learnfrom history not to missan opportunity. Learnfrom your own experi-ence not to give up.Take the opportunitiesyou are given.

A quote fromNapoleon Hill sums it

up: “The majority of men meet with failure because oftheir lack of persistence in creating new plans [oppor-tunities] to take the place of those which fail.” Whatopportunities, what new plans, what new ways ofdoing things, new sources of income, new strategiesand plans are in place now that weren’t around ten or20 years ago? These plans have been created for you totake over past plans which have failed. These oppor-tunities will create even more opportunities for your


“The majority of menmeet with failurebecause of their lackof persistence increating new plans[opportunities] to takethe place of thosewhich fail.”Napoleon Hill


future. The key is to take your opportunities now.Will opportunities involve risk? Yes! Will these

opportunities always be there? Maybe not. Is there achance of failure? Yes! Is there a chance to succeed?Absolutely! The key is to take them.

Never Lower Your AimThe next key to redeeming lost opportunities is tonever lower your aim. Where do you want to be? Whatdoes your future look like? What is your dream? Nowconsider how you will get there. What mechanism,what plan, strategy or business do you currently havethat’s going to take you there? If you don’t have one,you must find one. You are only going to be successfulin achieving your aim if you’ve got the right mecha-nism, the right vehicle to get you there.

Most people want to achieve wealth. I don’t knowanyone who doesn’t want or need more money. Butwhen it comes to earning more, most people do the‘same-old’, ‘same-old’, hoping they’ll hit the jackpot,win the lottery, or somehow get the million dollar TVquiz prize. That, my friends, is living in fantasy.They’ve got a high aimbut they’ve got nomethod to get there.You’ve got to aim highand work strategicallytowards achieving it.Start positioning your-self in a situation that will create wealth for you. Learnto derive income that will help you build a strong asset


“If you want to besuccessful, find

someone you canmodel yourself on.”


base from which you can further increase your income.Seek out advice from people who achieve where andwhat you want to achieve.

The best motivational speakers and business leadersin the world will always tell you, “If you want to besuccessful, find someone you can model yourself on.”In my life, I’ve got fantastic role models whom I wantto follow. I think of heroes like Billy Graham, NelsonMandela and Martin Luther King Jr. They all aimedhigh and achieved the impossible. They all had some-one else they looked up to. They all created a vehicleto get to where they wanted to go … and so must you.

You’ve got to aim high, higher than yourself. If allwe aim at is average, all we will ever get is average.

Generally, with what youaim at, you’ll either comejust a little under or over.So aim high, plan strategi-cally, and act decisively.We need to train hard sothat we can win easily.

One of our great Australian Olympians is a younglady by the name of Melinda Gainsford-Taylor.Melinda is known to practise her running by trailing acar tyre behind her. Now let me ask you this question:will she ever have to enter an Olympic Games with atyre attached to her body? The answer is no, but itmeans she builds strength in her running so that whenshe actually does run a race, she can win more easily.

Friends, it’s imperative to learn that we must trainhard to achieve things. Training hard makes winning


It’s what you dowith the time you’vegot that determinesthe life you live.


look simple. Any top athlete, swimmer, football play-er, or basketball player will train more than they actu-ally play. Each week they invest hour upon hour ofweight training, sprints, ball handling, stroke training.Why? Because if they train hard, they can win easily,and they won’t quit before they win!

A few years ago, my favourite football team inAustralia was given little if any chance of getting intothe season’s semi-finals. At the beginning of the year,they hated their endurance-training coach. He madethem do the extra sprints, when other teams were justrelaxing a little. In the off season, he made them runalong beaches. He made them sprint-train. He forcedthem to do extra weights. They hated Billy Johnson.But at the end of the year at the final play-offs, whensome of the games had to go into extra time and theywon, not only well, but convincingly, when they fin-ished the match with greater strength than many oftheir weary and tired opponents, they loved coachBilly. They actually celebrated him, almost more thantheir victories. They overtrained so they could overperform. They trainedhard to win easily. Theydidn’t cut corners, theydidn’t take short cuts, andthey didn’t quit. Whenothers were relaxing, theyworked hard. And eventually it brought them incred-ible victory and the respect of even the most vehe-ment opposition. Remember: train hard, don’t quit!


Perserverance is notone long race,

it’s one short raceafter another.


Perseverance is not one long race, it’s one short raceafter another.

Make up Lost TimeThe next key is to make up lost time. One of my obser-vations of life in general is this: most people get aheadduring the times that others waste. Think how manypeople today are the fastest remote control changer on

the planet, yet cannot finda way out of their financialsituations. All of us get 24hours in a day, yet somepeople achieve so muchmore than others do. Somepeople can make more in

one hour than most people make in a month of work.People might say, “That’s not fair!” But it most defi-nitely is fair. It is fair because there are those whowaste time and others who make the most of time.

Time is a gift we all get so we need to use it wisely,effectively, efficiently and opportunistically. It’s whatyou do with the time you’ve got that determines thelife you live. What you do with the opportunities youare given, at the time they are given to you, deter-mines your success or failure.

As a speaker, I have noticed that some people given60 minutes on a subject leave you wondering what onearth they just said. Others get 10 minutes and you areleft thinking what an incredible message, having saton the edge of your seat gasping for more. I believe thedifference is the amount of time people put into their


Time is a gift we allget so we need touse it wisely.


preparation for speaking. It’s the same in life. Theamount of time you’ve spent in working your opportu-nity, building your opportunity, researching, and plan-ning your opportunity will determine whether it’s asuccess or a failure. That choice is yours …



CHAPTER FIVE

Decide to Decideto Be Decisive

Decision is a sharp knife that cuts clean and straight.Indecision is a dull one that hacks and tears

and leaves ragged edges behind it.

Gordon Graham

Some time ago, award-winning vocal artist, GloriaEstefan, made a brilliant statement in one of her songs:“We seal our fate by the choices we make.” Choicesdetermine destinies. Wishes don’t determine our des-tiny in life. Wants never fulfil our dreams. Choicesdetermine destiny and dreams.

Every day we make choices. At times we don’t evenrealize we are making them. Getting out of bed each

52


morning is a choice. For some people it’s a major mir-acle! But for most of us it is a choice we don’t evenconsider we’ve made. Going to work is a choice; get-ting married is a choice. Choices are an every day partof life, but very few people pay attention to the choicesthey make. In fact, I would say that most people paylittle or no attention to the choices they make andtherefore don’t live the kind of lives they really wantto. Instead they live the life that fate or lack of deci-sion-making makes for them. Rather than activelychoosing what kind of life they want to live, they letlife just happen to them. What you choose ultimatelydetermines your behaviour, your financial situationand your friends.

To pursue opportunities in our lives and to maximisetheir potential, we must be people of decision. Historyis full of people having come face-to-face with oppor-tunity. Many have made great decisions. Some, how-ever, have made poor decisions and borne the conse-quences. Manuscripts of the movie and book Gonewith the Wind were initially rejected. They were choic-es, and bad ones at that! The Titanic is another famousexample of a series of ridiculous and disastrous choicesfor which many paid the ultimate price.

We are all accountable for our behaviour. By choos-ing our behaviour, we choose the consequences andcircumstances of our lives. Accepting this law stops usfrom dodging, ducking and weaving around questionsabout why our life is the way it is. You may say, “Hey –hang on a minute, Pat. I’ve been hurt. I’ve had divorcehappen to me. I’ve had business failures. I’ve had … ”

53DECIDE TO DECIDE TO BE DECISIVE


That may be the case, but are you responsible for thosehurts? NO. Are you accountable for your response tothem? YES.

No matter what has happened to us, no matter whatour circumstances, we must accept that our behav-ioural decisions will determine the outcome of ourlives. Whether we choose to believe it or not, we ownour feelings – they are ours, no one else’s. To choose to

feel the way we do, tolive in the situation wedo, is our choice andours alone. We need tolearn to choose ‘better’so we can live ‘better’and have ‘better’.

If I don’t like my job, I need to make the right deci-sion. If I am unhappy with my weight, I need to makethe right decision. If I don’t trust people, I need tomake the decision to begin to trust. If I am not happy,I can choose to change.

BlameMany people throw the blame for their problems ontosomething else, whether it is their spouse, a workmateor a lack of opportunity. When we blame others weabdicate the responsibility to change. What they areactually doing is not defining the real problem. Aproblem well defined is a problem solved. If we don’tdiagnose correctly, we are not going to treat the prob-lem correctly, and things won’t get better.

Ask yourself: What is in my life that I don’t like?


We need to learn tochoose ‘better’ so wecan live ‘better’ andhave ‘better’.


What can I do to change the situation? Ask yourself:What did I do to get into this situation? Did I nottrust? Did I fail to be clear about what I wanted? Did Ifail to set goals? Did I choose to befriend the wrongperson at the wrong time? Did I choose the wrongtime? Did I miss the opportunity? Did I fail to stand upfor what I believe is right? Did I fail to ask for what Iwanted? Did I not ask enough? Did I not get up anddo what I meant to? Did I procrastinate? We must faceresponsibility for the choices that will determine ouropportunities.

Stop the Blame GameThere is an oft quoted saying, “You shall know thetruth and the truth shall set you free”. Facing up totruth is a choice. It is at the very core of human natureto blame others. Blame is a type of self-preservation,an escape mechanism for us. We don’t want things tobe our responsibility, so we rationalise our actions andgo to any extreme toblame others. But suchaction doesn’t solve any-thing. It’s your life, it’syour financial situation,it’s your feelings – there-fore, you must make thedecisions that will affect you and your future. PeterDrucker, one of the 20th century’s most progressivebusiness thinkers, says it this way, “Once the facts areclear the decisions jump out at you.”

I remember a time when I lost my car keys. Every


“Once the facts areclear the decisions

jump out at you”Peter Drucker


husband knows that when you’ve lost the car keys,your wife has them! Well, my wife and I looked every-where. We searched all over the house; in the drawers,in our cupboards, between the seats on the lounge, butwe didn’t find the keys. Why? Because they weren’t inthe house! I had left those keys in the ignition of mycar! When we try to blame others, it’s exactly the samesituation. I was looking to point blame that simplywasn’t there.

You make the choices, you say the words, you settletoo easily, you quit, you talk yourself down, you sell outyour dreams, you choose your job, you let people treatyou the way they do, you feel rejected, you trust theuntrustworthy. You choose how you feel, how youreact and how you deal with the unexpected. US edi-tor, novelist and essayist, E.W. Howe stated, “Peoplestorm imaginary Alps and die in the foothills cursingdifficulties that do not exist.” When we appoint blame

we are expending theenergy we could beapplying to defining andovercoming the realproblem.

We are more responsi-ble for our decisionsthan we think. Peoplewant a successful future,yet every night they sit

in front of the television and ‘veg-out’, instead of get-ting up and building that future. They want a bettermarriage, so what do they do? They sit watching old


“People stormimaginary Alps anddie in the foothillscursing difficulties thatdo not exist.”E. W. Howe


re-runs of TV soap operas rather than spending timewith family and children. It doesn’t take long beforethis becomes a pattern of behaviour. Unfortunately,some of our behaviour becomes automatic. We stoppaying attention to it and no longer evaluate its emo-tional and financial effect on our lives.

Problems won’t go away, financial situations won’tgo away, and they don’t get better with time unless wemake a decision to change something. What we don’tadmit is wrong or is not where it ought to be will onlyget worse until we do. To admit things are wrong withyour life is to take the opportunity to make decisionsthat will change the course of your life.

The famous explorer David Livingstone once said,“I am prepared to go anywhere provided it be forward.”If you want to seize the opportunities that come yourway then you must make that same decision – to moveforward. You must decide to create the future youwant. Those who do not create the future they wantmust endure the future they get.

Do What Others Won’t DoI believe the difference between winners and losers inlife is that winners take action and make the decisionsthat losers don’t want to take and make. Like an ath-lete we need to review our life’s performance in lightof results. When we do this, we don’t accept excuses.There is no reason not to reach our goal.

Nothing in our life will change unless we begin todo something different. If you want to get somethingyou’ve never had, you’ve got to do something you’ve



never done. Former US Secretary of State, John FosterDulles said, “The measure of success is not whetheryou have a tough problem to deal with, but whether itis the same problem you had last year”.

If you are struggling with the same problems, obsta-cles, financial struggles and habits as those you facedten years, five years, even a year ago, then you havenot made the choice to break out from them and get

on with life’s opportuni-ties.

It’s a mistake toassume that life will getbetter when no decisionhas been made towardsthat betterment. Ibelieve the best way topredict influence andlive in the future wewant, is to make a deci-sion to create it. Gandhi

put it this way, “We must become the change we seekin the world and that takes a decision.”

We commonly think that people’s lives are betterbecause they have had the luck of the draw. Or they’vebeen brought up in a wealthy environment with a sil-ver spoon in their mouth. You can be brought up witha silver spoon or, as in my case, brought up with awooden spoon! It’s irrelevant. What matters are thechoices you make to take hold of opportunities thatcome your way! When you grasp those opportunities,they become a powerful mechanism to springboard


“The measure ofsuccess is not whetheryou have a toughproblem to deal with,but whether it is thesame problem youhad last year.”John Foster Dulles


you into your future, and to create a future for others.Just recently I was reading an article which

described what in many cases happened to the for-tunes millionaires left to their children. All too oftenthis hard-won wealth was squandered and wasted.Those children had an opportunity to better them-selves, to create more wealth from the finances theyinherited. But because of bad decisions, they actuallylost the resource that was given to them. What anopportunity! Yet their decisions caused them to losethe goldmine they inherited.

Be Like Mike: Make A DecisionAn environment of opportunity surrounds our lives –it’s everywhere. Some people make a decision to acton it, while others make a decision to leave it. A greatexample is one of the20th century’s greatestsporting heroes –Michael Jordan. WhenMichael Jordan soarsthrough the air to slam-dunk a basketball, itseems like time standsstill. Many people havereferred to his ability as‘Magic’. Kids want to bejust like Mike. At thepeak of his career Michael had many opportunitiesbefore him – multi-million dollar contracts and adver-tising agencies wanting to secure his endorsements.


An environment ofopportunity surrounds

our lives - it’severywhere. Some

people make adecision to act on it,while others make adecision to leave it.


But Michael’s life wasn’t always filled with opportuni-ty. In fact, he was dropped from his high school bas-ketball team.

Gloria Estefan can move a crowd. Together with herband she can have an audience standing on their feetsinging, clapping and dancing, simply by singing a fewnotes.

It can all seem as if these people just had successthrust upon them. Or that they just got a lucky break.Maybe they were just at the right place at the righttime. You can have all these factors. You can be at theright place at the right time. You can get a great break.You can receive an open door of opportunity. Buthere’s what separates the Gloria Estefans, the MichaelJordans and the other successful people of our world –they make a decision to act on the opportunities theyare given; and choose not to live in their past failuresor fears. They decide to live their childhood dreams.

Faced with adversity they chose not to quit on theirdreams. As I have told you, Michael Jordan was cutfrom his high school basketball team and had to

become the team manager inorder to keep practising withthe rest of the players. He saidof those days, “If there was amost likely to succeed, I was theleast.”

Gloria Estefan had her back broken in a traffic acci-dent at the height of her career and underwent inten-sive physical therapy to return to the stage.

It is always too early to give up on your dreams.


It is always tooearly to give upon your dreams.


Imagine if Neil Armstrong had given up on his child-hood dream to do something great in aviation. Hewould never have been the first human being to steponto the surface of the moon.

Opportunity lies inside us from our earliest days. Asa young girl Barbra Streisand could think of little elsethan becoming a professional entertainer. AndrewLloyd Webber, famous for the stage productionsPhantom of the Opera and Evita, spent hours as a childconstructing elaborate sets for the puppet shows withwhich he entertained the family.

It’s always too early to decide to quit on your oppor-tunities!

Let me give you a personal example. I write booksand speak all over the world because it feeds mygreater dream of helping others. For the same reason, Ibecame the Executive Director of a drug rehabilitationcentre. The centre houses many young men from allaround my home state. Every day, my ‘boys’ as I callthem have to make decisions in life that you and I willprobably never have to make. They have to make adecision not to go back to a life of crime and drugaddiction. They have to make a decision to stay inlong-term rehabilitation. They have to decide to per-severe when they read books, study and do personaldevelopment, even though some of them don’t havethe most academic minds or have the best literary abil-ity. It’s a tough decision, but they make that decision.

I’ve seen these young men develop into outstandingcitizens because they make the decision to take a win-dow of opportunity that’s been given to them.



Someone has given them an opportunity to get theirlife together. Someone has given them an opportunityto break their addictions and enter into a life of suc-cess. Someone has given them an opportunity to takecontrol of their life and develop the skills needed to

build a future and have afamily, rather than live a lifeof crime.

Some of these young menmake the decision and stickwith it. Having made it, theyrarely return to their formerlife. In fact, the centre hasan 86-percent success ratefor those who stick with theprogram to its completion.

They never return to the past. Those who don’t stickit out, quitting in the midst of their opportunity, gen-erally go back to the same lifestyle. It’s all in theability to choose.


Those who don’tstick it out, quittingin the midst oftheir opportunity,generally goback to the samelifestyle.


CHAPTER SIX

Don’t Fear It, Face It!The men who try to do something and fail

are infinitely better than those whotry to do nothing and succeed.

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Overcoming Hindrances to OpportunityFranklin D. Roosevelt was President of the USA eventhough he had been crippled by polio. Artist, HenriMatisse, created some of his greatest work when aged,bed-ridden and nearly blind. Patty Catalano, one ofhistory’s top women marathon runners, overcame theself-destructive habits of overeating and chain smok-ing to become a world class athlete. Thomas Edison’sfather called him a dunce, and his headmaster toldhim he would never make a success of anything.



Henry Ford barely made it through high school.The father of the Polaroid camera, Edwin Land,

after failing to develop instant movies, turned hisefforts to easy photography. He described the chal-lenge before him in this way: “… trying to use animpossible chemistry in a non-existent technology tomake an un-manufacturable product for which therewas no discernible demand.” That, in his opinion, cre-ated the optimum working conditions for a creativemind. While most of us have used his invention, theresult of his perseverance, too many of us still liveunder the power of obstacles rather than the limitless-ness of opportunity.

What are some of the obstacles that people areafraid of? Take a moment to look at the list below, con-sider your fears, and reflect on the company you keep.

(Tick the ones that apply to you)

I lack education! Henry FordI don’t know enough people! Al GoreI have a family history of failure! Abraham LincolnI have a physical disability! Helen KellerI was abused as a child! Oprah WinfreyI have a criminal history! Nelson MandelaNobody understands my dream! Walt DisneyI’m too old! Cher (just kidding!)

At 82, Winston Churchill wrote hishistory of the English people.

I’m too young! Nadia Comenici, aged 14, achieved



gymnastics’ perfect score of 10 at the Montreal Olympicsin 1976.

I have an illness! Champion US cyclist Lance Armstrong.

The timing’s not right yet! In 1856, Italian Antonio Meucci set up the world's first phone line, buthe never marketed his idea. A few years later German Johann Philipp Reis made a devicehe dubbed a telephone. Almost 20 years later, Alexander GraemeBell created the modern phone, filed his patent papers, and reaped the glory.

I’ve been rejected in the past! Colonel Sanders, Abraham Lincoln … and just about anyone else who’sachieved anything!

I’m not good atcommunicating with people! Moses

65DON’T FEAR IT, FACE IT


Think about this … all of these fears and excuses,whether imagined or real, are used by people to forsakeor dismiss opportunity. Yet, it’s those very things thatcan catapult you into success.

Face Your FearsFear is a terrible thing. My good friend, RobertFerguson, a leading pastor and teacher, recently gavesome advice on fear. Two of the most important pointshe made were that fear is a tool used to cripple our des-tiny, and fear is real to the person who is experiencingit. For example, I am not at all afraid of cockroaches,but my wife and daughters are terrified of them.Women amaze me – they can pour hot wax on them-selves, and rip hair like you wouldn’t believe, but beterrified by a tiny cockroach! My attitude is, “You’re sobig, it’s so little – so deal with it!” What terrifies themmeans nothing to me. But their fear of cockroaches isvery real to them!

We can all face our fears by changing our view of thethings that concern us.We need a new pair ofbinoculars. RobertFerguson suggests thatwhen you have a set ofbinoculars and you lookat them through thesmall holes, everythingis magnified. We need tolook at our fears throughthe big lens. That way


When you have a setof binoculars and youlook at them throughthe small holes,everything ismagnified. We needto look at our fearsthrough the big lens.


everything else gets small and you get big. How youview yourself is how you view your fear and how oth-ers view you. Change your perceptions so that you canface your fears.

Reject RejectionWhat are those fears? Most people are afraid of rejec-tion. They fear it more than they do missing theiropportunity. They fear that an opportunity may causethem to lose friends, prestige, and associations. Isn’t itstrange how success can bring you great friends but canalso cause you to feel rejected? I remember when I wasa kid, we would play in the school grounds and alwayspick the biggest macho guys to play on our team. Youremember those guys – the type who had muscles ontheir fingernails! We would line up, and I‘d look at theteam leaders and silently wish, “Pick me, pick me!”Finally, there were just two people left, the nerd and I– and they would pick him first! Talk about rejection!

Rejection starts when we are kids, and we bring itinto our adult life. We all crave acceptance.Unfortunately, most peo-ple would rather be likedthan respected. Peoplelike other people to beaverage. People like thosewho don’t rise to the top.But we remember peoplewhose values we aspire to: courage, conviction, char-acter, initiative and willingness to make a go of anopportunity. Fear of rejection, by contrast, causes peo-


Unfortunately, mostpeople would

rather be liked thanrespected.


ple to accept lives of conformity and mediocrity. Fearof rejection causes people to crave acceptance andpopularity. But you can’t satisfy something that comesfrom inside you, with external factors like popularitypolls or other people’s opinions. We must decide tolive by purpose, not fickle popularity.

The fear of rejection causes people to by-pass oppor-tunity because they don’treally understand whothey are. There is a storytold of some men whohad been prisoners of warin a Nazi concentration

camp. At the end of the war these poor specimens ofinhumane suffering had lost their memories. Theycould not remember their names, or to whom theybelonged. So it was decided to have these men tourfrom hall to hall around Europe. Their photographswere posted up and if anyone recognized them, theywere to come to collect them at the various viewinghalls.

On one such day, the hall was packed. People cameto collect their sons, fathers, and uncles, barely recog-nizable because of the injustice they had suffered.However, no-one came for a particular man, so hestood out in front of the crowd and asked, “Does any-body know who I am? Can anybody tell me to whom Ibelong?” That man said what most people think andfeel. We all desire to belong, and there is nothingwrong with that. But when the craving to belong over-comes your desire to fulfil a dream and opportunity,


Fear of rejectioncauses people to by-pass opportunity.


when the fear of rejection is greater than the power ofopportunity, you’ve got a problem. The tragic equationgoes like this:

Self worth = Performance + Other people’s opinions

Instead, we need to overcome the fear of rejection andgrab hold of opportunities by adopting this formula:

Self worth = Resolve your identity + Choose tostand for something + Unfurl your dreams + Createa new reality

Let’s look at some of these ingredients in the formulafor self worth.

Resolve Your IdentityMany of us have asked the question, “Who am I?”(Notice I didn’t ask what you do - that’s your function,not who you are.) Let’s look at some of the things youare or can be:

I am successful I can be successfulI am an achiever I can be an achieverI am a leader I can be a leaderI am a dreamer I can be a dreamer

You’ve just defined your identity. If you resolve thatthis is who you are, you won’t need continual affirma-tion from people, and you won't let your feelings dic-tate whether you bail out of an opportunity or not.



Arnold Schwarzenegger is a great example of suchresolute self-affirmation. He says this:

The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envis-age the fact that you can do something, you really cando it – as long as you really believe it 100%. It’s allmind over matter. All I know is that the first step is tocreate the vision, because when you see the visionthere – the beautiful vision – that creates the “wantpower”. For example, my wanting to be Mr Universecame about because I saw myself so clearly, being upthere on the stage and winning.

Choose to Stand for SomethingChoose to stand for something, not blend with every-thing. I find it amazing that people want to be differ-ent, yet they are all the same. They do business thesame, they build the same houses, and their beliefs arethe same. They have never taken the opportunity tobe different, to do things differently.

I remember some years ago going to a school wherethere were 1200 students in the audience. At the frontwas a group of girls all dressed like Madonna. (Do youremember when Madonna had her hair like MargeSimpson?) This group of girls were all dressed thesame. Their hairstyles were the same, their make-upwas (you guessed it) the same. I asked them, “Why areyou girls all dressed like Madonna?” The ringleaderreplied, “Because we want to be different." And yetthey were all the same! It’s time that we allowed our-selves to be different and shun conformity. Our world



suffers from conformity in this age of political correct-ness. We are afraid to define things as they should be,or ever say things as we feel. We're even afraid to livein the opportunities we are presented with because ofour politically correct thinking. Consider for amoment the words we use to define certain things:

If you are Short, you are Vertically Challenged.

Gingerbread Men are now called GingerbreadPeople.

If you have a Bad Temper, you are Anger Enhanced.

If you are a Drug Addict, you are called ChemicallyInconvenienced.

If you are Lazy, you are MotivationallyDispossessed.

But my favourite is this:

If you are a Thief or Shoplifter (wait for it), you arenow called a Non-Traditional Shopper.

Can you imagine going to court and being chargedfor non-traditional shopping to support your chemicalinconvenience, because you were motivationally dis-possessed to the degree you could do nothing withyour life? Yet people live this way, because of the fearof rejection, and miss out on opportunities.



Herbert Bayard Swope, NY World editor and politi-cian, said it best: “I cannot give you the formula forsuccess, but I can give you the formula for failurewhich is ‘try to please everybody’.”

Unfurl Your DreamsWe hide our dreams. We love them but are embar-rassed by them. Maybe we feel we are not worthy ofthe dream. That old fear – “Who do you think youare?” – cripples us. In life, if you’re constantly told youcan't, you probably never will. We program ourselvesinto thinking we can't by constantly telling ourselveswe can't. So when opportunities come to us that cangive us a new perspective, put us on a road to financialfreedom or be a highway for our dreams, we don’t grabthat opportunity because we've talked ourselves intobelieving we can't handle it, before we even begin.

Create a New RealityOur lives will never be the same. It's an exciting timefor all. The key is to enter the 21st century with abrand new view of a how things can get done.

I am reminded of the movie Truman. It is the storyof a young man living in a world created for him by theegotistical media mogul, Christos. Truman lives in afake world of actors, each playing their part. His wife,family and friends are all actors. It is a world he is borninto and does not know any better. In essence he istrapped. Sound familiar? Of course it does: that’s thestory of most people – trapped in a world and workenvironment someone else planned. Trapped in a job



where someone else calls the shots, moves the playersin motion at his or her will without regard for yourdreams, desires and ambition.

Truman, however, discovers he is trapped and planshis escape. He faces opposition on every side, evenfrom his family and friends. They use fear, threats anddistractions to keep him from escaping. Finally, italmost costs him his life, but Truman's will and desireto be free are stronger than thepain of the challenge. He walksthrough the door to a new reality, afree man! The question is, willyou?

Don’t allow yourself to feeltrapped any longer. You can walkthrough the door of opportunity.All of us can learn to become free.We can all achieve our dreams ifwe choose to take the opportuni-ties given to us. Those opportunities may come to uspackaged as adversity, but we can all learn to seebeyond the struggle and capture greater success.

What exciting concept or opportunity are you look-ing at right now? What great opportunity is availableto you? What can you start to do about personal hap-piness and financial freedom? Maybe you know of away to build a business enabling you to establish aworld-wide financial base for the 21st century, but areafraid to get in! Don’t be. Your opportunity day is today!


We can allachieve our

dreams if wechoose to

take the opportunitiesgiven to us.


CHAPTER SEVEN

GivingThere is no more noble occupation in the world,

than to assist another human being andto help some one succeed.

Alan Loy McGinnis

Creating Opportunity for OthersOne of the greatest laws in the universe is the law ofsowing and reaping. Put another way, what you sow inlife, you also reap.

We see this sowing principle in action all around us.People who live generous, giving lives often receivegreat rewards. Great friends attract equally greatfriendships. And those who are lazy, more often thannot, live a life that’s wasteful and unfulfilled. Since thebeginning of creation farmers have cultivated crops by



this same principle. They would never expect a cropwhich they hadn’t planted in the first place. It is thesame in our lives. Robert Kiyosaki in his brilliant bookRich Dad, Poor Dad states that whatever you want inlife, you’ve got to give away first.

Isn’t it amazing that the things you give away oftenreturn to you? I’ll never for-get one Sunday morningbeing invited to speak for agreat friend of mine, Steve. Itwas his birthday and thecrowd had brought a cakebut no gift. That morning Ihad my favourite watch on.It was my pride and joy. NowI have come to trust the prompts I get in my heart andthat morning, as I spoke, I felt I should give my watchto Steve. I have got to tell you it was not an easy task.I had saved, I had planned, I had bargained for thiswatch. It was my dream watch, maybe not to anyoneelse’s eyes or heart, but certainly to mine. All of a sud-den I knew I had to give it away. Right there in themiddle of my talk, I yelled to Steve, “Catch!” andthrew him the watch. Fortunately he’s a better catch-er than I am a pitcher! Now Steve is a lot taller than Iam, and he has the wrists to go with his height, but hewas so overwhelmed by receiving this gift, he immedi-ately put it on. His arm turned red, but I couldn’t con-vince him to take it off until I gave him the extra linkswith it. Later Steve told me, “I always dreamed of hav-ing this watch.” He said, “Pat, I’d watch you speak andI’d think I’d love a watch like that one.”

75GIVING

“Whatever youwant in life,

you’ve got to giveaway first.”

Robert Kiyosaki


So I followed my heart and gave that watch away.Can I tell you, from that day to this, I have had morewatches given to me than I could ever need? I’ve beengiven a solid gold Rolex with a diamond bezel face.I’ve been given a beautiful Rolex Submariner. Let metell you, when you give something away you willalways get something better in return! Never miss theopportunity to give. Never disregard those heart-feltprompts, because what may seem silly to you mightmean everything to someone else.

Seeds Turn into HarvestsI heard a man once say that one can count the seedsin an apple, but cannot count the apples in a seed.What seeds of opportunity are you creating for otherpeople?

Opportunities don’t just happen; they are created.We create opportunities when we share them, whenwe show them and when we give them away. We oftenthink entrepreneurs are only creating wealth for them-selves, when in fact they are also creating many oppor-tunities for others. A successful venture creates job

opportunities, wealth opportu-nities and opportunities forpeople to buy homes, not tomention opportunities forthem to educate their childrenand create a future. Successfulbusinesses help others fulfil

their dreams.Too often people denigrate the entrepreneurial spir-


Successful businesses helpothers fulfil theirdreams.


it, a spirit and an attitude we so desperately need.Entrepreneurs are accused of opportunism. Let me saythis – the person making the opportunities actuallycreates opportunities. We must learn to elevate thosewho create opportunities, not denigrate them.Anybody successful has sown seeds causing them toreap a harvest of pros-perity. FormerChrysler Corporationchairman, LeeIacocca, said, “In theend all business opera-tions can be reducedto three words - peo-ple, product and prof-its. People come first.”A key to making themost of opportunity is to know that we must also cre-ate opportunities for others. Brian Tracy, author ofMaximum Achievement, said, “Successful people arealways looking for opportunities to help others, unsuc-cessful people are always asking what’s in it for me?”

Creating OpportunityWe create opportunities by networking with otherpeople. Networking is people working together forself-betterment. I enjoy being connected. I have lostcount of the times I have been able to connect otherpeople. Perhaps it was a printer who needed a greatgraphic artist, or a great graphic artist who neededsomeone to print something. Perhaps it was someone

77GIVING

“In the end allbusiness operationscan be reduced to

three words – people,product and profits.People come first.”

Lee Iacocca


who was looking for an opportunity to become suc-cessful, and I had the opportunity to link him withsomeone who has been financially successful. Manytimes I have been able to help young people strugglingwith addictions and crisis in their life meet someonewho has overcome similar difficulties. Their triumphhas provided inspiration for those young people. Thisis connecting people together. It is the art of networking.

No man or woman will ever be a success by his orher self. We must learn the art of working together. It’sthe power of synergy, where the total sum is greaterthan the individual parts. Let me illustrate. A steeringwheel is useless to us outside its functioning in a car.

But without the steeringwheel, every other com-ponent of the car isworthless. Taken togeth-er, the steering wheel,the engine, the transmis-sion and every otherindividual part thatmakes up the car is very

useful. Synergy is the power of each individual partworking together.

We can do collectively, with co-operation and withan interconnection, much more than we ever couldjust on our own. We see it in football, basketball andrelay races. We see it in armies, clever organisationsand successful marriages, where people work togetherfor the betterment of everyone. It’s called teamwork.The best organisations learn how to work together


No man or womanwill ever be a successby him or her self.We must learn the artof working together.


using each other’s strengths to compensate eachother’s weaknesses. It’s an age-old principle that hasbecome even more powerful in this new millennium.

And that’s how creating opportunities works. Wecreate opportunities for others; they create opportuni-ties for us. We are a stronger force together. I havemany friends who are brilliant speakers, and often wewill share information so that we can create opportu-nities for each other. I will refer their names to busi-ness organisations and convention planners and theydo the same for me. It’s the power of creating opportu-nities for other people.

Be ready for the opportunity that’s created for you.Someone once said, “Be ready when opportunitycomes. Luck is the time when preparation and oppor-tunity meet.” Former British Prime Minister,Benjamin Disraeli put it this way, “The secret of suc-cess in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunitywhen it comes.” Are you ready for today's opportuni-ties? Are you ready to create opportunities for others?All of your time, preparation and dreams come togeth-er in an opportunity thatcan become the vehiclethrough which you canbuild your future. Are youlooking at an opportunitythat has been created foryou?

Created opportunitiesmust be viewed as an act ofgenerosity. The Roman

79GIVING

“Be ready whenopportunity

comes. Luck isthe time when

preparationand opportunity

meet.”


author Seneca once said, “Wherever there is a humanbeing, there is an opportunity for kindness.” MotherTheresa said these words, “Unless life is lived for oth-

ers, it’s not worth-while.” As a young nunshe developed a burningdesire to work with thehomeless and hopeless.Although she was con-vinced of this calling,her superiors suggested

her youth and inexperience would cause her to fail insuch an endeavour. At the age of 39 she was finallyallowed to pursue her passion. Not only has she creat-ed opportunities for the poor and the needy, she hascreated opportunities for others to do the same.Through the work she started, many have found asense of dignity and achievement in helping the lessfortunate. Alan Loy McGinnis, author of FriendshipFactor, said, “There is no more noble occupation inthe world, than to assist another human being and tohelp someone succeed.”

Let me give you a timely illustration. In my books Ioften quote other writers and their great sayings ofwhat others have done. They have created an oppor-tunity for you and I to think. They have also createdan opportunity for us to build on those precious fewwords they have given to us. They have created oppor-tunity, and we in turn give them credit for their impar-tation to us.

To create an opportunity, you sometimes need to


“Wherever there isa human being, thereis an opportunity for kindness.”Seneca


give someone just a little push. A bird has incrediblepotential; it can fly! But as a chick it feels secure in itsnest. It has to learn to fly in order to fulfil its potential,so a little push from its parent is needed. Soon thecomfort of the nest is forgotten for the glory of soaringthe high places. Sometimes, all someone needs is a bit ofa push to believe they can achieve what they want to.

Be SweetPersuasion comes from the Latin word ‘persuasio’which means, ‘through sweetness’. We create oppor-tunities for people, not by force, but through sweet-ness, showing them they can do it. That ‘sweetness’comes in seeing things through their eyes. Most of uswant to put people in their place. Our natural reactionis to expect people to do what we do. If we want to cre-ate opportunities for others, we must put ourselves intheir place. We must look at life through their eyes.

In life, what you see is determined by where youstand. Where you stand determines what you see. Ifyou want to persuade people and create opportunitiesfor them you must put yourself in their circumstancesand see what they see. This will help us in creatingopportunities, but it will also help us become morepersuasive in convincing them that the opportunitieswe create are worthwhile pursuing.

Once you create an opportunity for someone, andthey become successful at it, don’t be threatened byhim or her. And vice versa, when someone creates anopportunity for you, be thankful for it! Decide to be arole model of opportunity-creation.

81GIVING


All of us can become teachers and heroes to some-body else. Children teach us this. If a boy believes inhis parent enough, the parent can convince him ofanything. I remember my daughter Chantelle beamingat me as I explained to her, when she was just a fewyears of age, that Daddy visited the moon on that day.And with big eyes, she said, “Really?” I had to explainto her that it wasn’t actually true. It took more con-vincing to un-explain myself than it did to explain. InThe Natural, Bernard Malamud states, “Withoutheroes, we are all plain people and don’t know how farwe can go.” People generally don’t improve unless theyhave someone else to model their lives upon. Theyhave the attitude that, “If they can do it, I can do it!”

Author Charles Fowler put it this way, “The bestteachers of humanity arethe lives of great men.”The most important influ-ence in another person’slife isn’t necessarily anevent, although eventsinfluence us. It doesn’tnecessarily have to be abook or a story, either.

The greatest influence can, and most often is, anotherperson’s life. You can decide to be that life – you willcreate opportunities for others, so they can follow inyour footsteps.

When you create a network, opportunities tend tobreed. With one opportunity comes another opportu-nity and then another. John Steinbeck, author of The


“Without heroes, weare all plain peopleand don’t know howfar we can go.”Bernard Malamud


Grapes of Wrath, in a rather humorous way said, “Ideasare like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how tohandle them and pretty soon you have a dozen.” Thesame can be said of opportunities. I can create anopportunity for another person by introducing them toa friend. I can create opportunities by referring peopleto other people. I can create opportunities for peopleby giving them ideas. I can do it by introducing themto a business. I can create opportunities by being a rolemodel to them, to help kick start their opportunity. Ican create opportuni-ties for others by tak-ing an opportunitymyself and invitingothers to be part of it.

There’s a story aboutthe entertainer JimmyDurante and his per-formance in front of anaudience of World WarII veterans. Because ofhis busy schedule, he had originally agreed to a briefappearance. He delivered his short monologue, butlingered on the stage as the applause grew louder andlouder. After half an hour, he took a bow. Backstage,he was asked why he had stayed so long. Jimmy point-ed to the front row, where two one-armed veterans satclapping enthusiastically. One had lost his right armand the other his left, but they both used what theyhad together, and applauded him. His heart had goneout to these two men who, despite their limitations, in

83GIVING

“Ideas are likerabbits. You get a

couple and learn howto handle them and

pretty soon you havea dozen.”

John Steinbeck


spite of what others might have seen as a handicap,had learned how to work together. They did the bestthey could with what they had. You can live a gener-ous life helping others fulfil their dreams and all youneed to do is start now …



CHAPTER EIGHT

ChangeIf you thought it yesterday,if you’re thinking it today,

you won’t think it tomorrow.

Faith Popcorn

Every opportunity requires change. Change is thatugly word that people do their best to avoid. I remem-ber someone once saying to me, “Pat, I’m like theAlmighty: I changeth not.” My response was, “He’sperfect – you’re not.”

President John F. Kennedy said, “Change is the lawof life. Those who only look to the past or present arecertain to miss the future.”

The future, my friends, is all about change. Andchange is about progress. We must change; our

85PERSEVERANCE


economies must change; business methods mustchange. Products change; distribution mechanismschange; leadership roles change; the way we leadchanges. Our tastes are in a constant state of change.Even our body changes almost every single day with-out us even knowing. All this change requires effort.Civil-rights activist, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said ofchange, “Tears will get you sympathy, sweat will getyou change.” How true that is. You must work atchange. It doesn’t just happen.

For many years I struggled with a short fuse, a badtemper. I used to excuse itas part of my geneticmake-up. At times, Iwould call it my leader-ship temperament, untilone day I had to face theawful truth: I just had abad temper. I needed to

change. I had to decide to deal with my temper, so Ibegan a process of change. Rather than going off thehandle, I had to learn to think of the consequences ofmy actions and words. The change required my con-sistent effort but I am better for it, and I am certain Ihave had many more opportunities, ones I mightnever have had, if I had let my temper issue go.

Our world has changed from an agricultural age toan industrial age, and now to an information age, yetmany people still don’t want to change with the times.I think it was Bob Dylan who sang, “The times theyare a-changing. If you can’t lend a hand, then get out


“Tears will get yousympathy, sweat willget you change.”Rev. Jesse Jackson


of the way.” Most people resist change because theydon’t understand it. Rosa McBeath-Canter of theHarvard Business School has said, “Individuals whowill succeed and flourish will also be masters ofchange, adept at re-iter-ating their own and oth-ers’ activities in untrieddirections to bring abouthigh levels of achieve-ment.”

When the local grocerystore became the localsupermarket, peoplereacted badly. They wereworried. “How are we going to cope with this change?”they asked. “Who would want to go to the supermar-ket and pick their own food off a shelf?” Yet now we doit every day without thinking. Now we are seeing thechange from the supermarket to e-commerce: theordering of products and services on-line. If, like me,you are in your 40s, it might be a difficult concept, butfor the average teenager and young adult, it’s part of anevery day process. Their world is a screen. They livethere. The remote control epitomises their life –change is as easy as the push of a button.

Our world is changing – the television set canbecome a computer. Cell phones, only ten years agothe size of a brick and weighing about as much, arenow the size of a hand, or smaller. From your cell-phone you can surf the internet, send and receive e-mail, and you can fax! It is possible to communicate

87CHANGE

“The times, they area-changing. If youcan’t lend a hand,then get out of the

way.”Bob Dylan


almost in any way imaginable. You can even watch TVon some cell phones!

Things are changing. Be prepared and go with theflow of change. Don’t fight change, welcome change.Don’t resist change, embrace it, and adapt it into yourlife. Most people think to themselves, ‘I won’t change;I’ll stay where I am.’ However, the world continues togrow and expand, and if we stand still, rather than stayin the same place, we actually go backwards.

Globalisation is now a major part of our world. Wehave a global economy. We can’t think of just ournational economy any longer. Even a short 20 yearsago few businesses really needed to pay attention toglobal markets – their national market was just fine.Today, from your own home, even from a plane flying,you can access your own personal business on a com-puter and work towards generating vast amounts ofwealth. This is all a by-product of change.

I love change. I think change shows the ‘bigness’ ofa person. In one of my fields of work, running a drugrehabilitation centre, one of my former staff members,and I underline the word former, came to me one dayand said, “Why are we changing the program? We’vedone it the same way for the past 15 years.” That's whyhe is a former employee. No-one can afford to dothings the way they were done 15 years ago. I want todo things the way they’re done today. Whilst we canlearn from our past and adapt the good, we must alsoincorporate the newness of the now. Faith Popcornwas right when she said, “If you thought it yesterday, ifyou’re thinking it today, you won’t think it tomorrow.”



The life story of musician Sonny Bono is one of pos-itive change. Probably most well-known for his suc-cessful musical career,Sonny and Cher soldmore than 40 millionrecords. Sonny hadborrowed $175 torecord his first hit song.Sonny went on to tele-vision. The Sonny andCher Comedy Hour wasconsistently in the ten-most-watched shows. Sonny then went into politics,first as mayor of Palm Springs and then in 1994 win-ning a seat in the House of Representatives. SonnyBono didn’t stay still, he changed with the times andwith his circumstances. So can you.

Change means better opportunities. One changemakes way for the next, giving us the opportunity togrow. In 1928 Harry Cunningham worked in thestockroom of the Kresge Company. Harry was a goodthinker and over the following years he was promoted.In 1957, as vice president of the company, he began tostudy the marketplace of the future. He concludedthat discount stores would hold a major market sharein the future. In 1959 he was appointed president andbegan the process of change that would see the estab-lishment, in 1963, of 40 K-Mart stores. By 1977 therewere over 1000 K-Mart stores throughout the UnitedStates. Today, you can shop at K-Mart throughout theworld. Harry Cunningham saw the opportunity pre-

89CHANGE

“If you thought ityesterday, if you’re

thinking it today, youwon’t think it

tomorrow.”Faith Popcorn


sented by the changing shopping habits of consumers.Rather than rejecting it, he capitalized on it and a suc-cessful international business was born. Someone oncesaid “If we don’t change, we don’t grow; if we don’tgrow, we aren’t really living.” Discovering change is

crucial to making themost of opportunity.

President RonaldReagan said ofAmerica, “The verykey to our success hasbeen our ability, fore-

most among nations, to preserve our lasting values bymaking change work for us, rather than against us.”America has gone on to be this century's dominanteconomic, military and innovative force. It is livingtestimony to the fact that change can work for you.


“If we don’t change,we don’t grow; if wedon’t grow, we aren’treally living.”


CHAPTER NINE

PerseveranceI do not think there is any other quality so essential tosuccess of any kind as the quality of perseverance, it

overcomes almost everything, even nature.

J.D. Rockefeller

Finish What You StartedMany people in life are brilliant starters, but somehowthey never finish. Any athlete will tell you it’s not howyou start the race that counts, but how you finish.

Often, people get off to a flying start in business,excited, full of expectations, full of great dreams, butsome how they get side-tracked. It’s like beginning torun a marathon, then, after a while, taking a detourand rather than getting back on track, staying on thatdetour until you end up somewhere you never really



expected to be. It just doesn't make sense. History is full of great starters, who ended up being

not-so-great finishers. Sometimes, it’s in the middle ofour life race that we quit or fail to persevere or give up.It's not the beginning that counts. Although thebeginning starts you off, you’ve got to continue to theend to make starting worthwhile. The important,indeed the most valuable, thing to do in life is to fin-ish what you intended to do. How many great bookswill never be read because although they were started,they were left half written? There has never been asuccessful song left half written. Nor a successful busi-ness left only half built. The key is to finish what youstarted to do.

We have already talked about one of the greatestspeakers of all time, Billy Graham. While Billy

Graham and two of hispeers, Chuck Templetonand Brian Clifford, start-ed their race together,only one made it. Whatwas the difference?Perseverance and com-mitment!

Many people with lesstalent, less ability andless enthusiasm achievemore than those with

greater gifts because they have a commitment to endwhat they began to do. When someone enters a mar-riage, they don’t enter it for a few weeks or a month or


There has never beena successful song lefthalf written. Nor asuccessful businessleft only half built.The key is to finishwhat you started todo.


a few years, they enter it ‘till death do us part'. Theywant it to end the way it started. And so it should bein business and in our personal endeavours. We’ve gotto enter these opportunities with a mind to finish, togo all the way, not just part way.

It takes consistency to finish what you’ve started.Most people reaching the heights of success, whetherfinancial or sporting, have been consistent. To getthere, they have not been up and down like a yo-yo.They have built their lives consistently on the basics.They consistently try to go further. They consistentlyinvest money. And over time, they do better thanaverage, because they are consistent.

Just recently, I endeavoured a long run from myhometown, Sydney, to a neighbouring city,Wollongong, a distance of more than 120 kilometres.When I began to train, I would run with a young manwho had spent many years training as a triathlete.From the beginning of our first training run, I tried tokeep up with him, but to say the least, I didn’t do toowell. The next time, however, I found that if I ran con-sistently at my own pace, not shooting out of the start-ing blocks like a bullet, but steadily setting and main-taining my own pace, I did well and finished the racein a good time

You’ve heard the old story of the Tortoise and theHare – slow and steady wins the race. Well I don’tknow about being slow, but what I would suggest isthat we learn to be steady and consistent. Boxing leg-end Joe Frazier said, “It’s the fighter that gets up in theearly hours of the morning, and does the runs every-

93PERSEVERANCE


day, he gets up and takes no short cuts on the road. Ifyou take a shortcut on the daily grind, it’ll turn upunder lights at night.” You’ve got to be consistent ifyou want to make the most of your opportunity.

Perseverance is essential to achieving your dreams.The dictionary defines perseverance as “steady persis-

tence in adhering to acourse of action, a belief, ora purpose; steadfastness.”Most people give up justwhen they are about toachieve success. They giveup at the last minute, onlymoments away from win-ning their reward.

As I edged closer to theend of my run toWollongong, the equiva-lent of three marathonsover a period of two days, itwas the last few miles andthe last hill that was themost difficult. But unless Ipersevered through it and

over that final hill, I would never have felt the thrilland exhilaration of knowing “I did it!” J.D.Rockefeller said this: “I do not think there is any otherquality so essential to success of any kind as the quali-ty of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything,even nature.” My friends, how true that statement is.

Perseverance can overcome every single force, even


“It’s the fighter thatgets up in the earlyhours of the morn-ing, and does theruns every day, hegets up and takesno shortcuts on theroad. If you take ashortcut on thedaily grind, it’ll turnup under lightsat night.”Joe Frazier


the critical tongue of the unsympathetic relative. Itcan overcome the limitations of a lack of education. Itcan overcome the bound-aries in which other peopletry to fence us. It can over-come the sense of under-achievement that we allstruggle with. It’s persever-ance that sees us breakthrough into a higher levelof living.

Dennis Waitley andReni L. Witt who co-authored The Joy ofWorking said this of perse-verance, “It means givingfull concentration andeffort to whatever you are doing right now.” What is itthat you are doing right now? What opportunity haveyou been presented with, or are you involved in rightnow? Keep persevering on that. Keep pounding awayuntil you strike oil.

Clothing designer, Calvin Klein, loved fashion froman early age. For six years after graduating from adesign course, he struggled to make ends meet. Just ashe was considering leaving fashion altogether, to workin the grocery business, a friend gave him $10,000 toform Calvin Klein Ltd. Less than 10 years later, Kleinhad won three consecutive Coty awards. None of usknow what success awaits our consistent perseverance.

Every human being goes through periods of discour-

95PERSEVERANCE

“I do not thinkthere is any quality

so essential tosuccess of any kind

as the quality ofperserverance. It

overcomes almosteverything, even

nature.”J. D. Rockefeller


agement at some time or other. We all face it. The keyis to break through it, and to realise that out of thatdiscouragement, courage can come. Brian Tracy said,“Courage comes by acting courageously on a day-to-day basis.” If you've faced discouragement, perhaps youwill be surprised by those who have been there beforeyou.

Henry Ford went bankrupt twice in his first threeyears in the automobile business. Three of FrankWoolworth's first five chain stores failed.Michelangelo lay on his back for seven years to paintthe Sistine Chapel. Hewlett-Packard and Atari reject-ed innovative computer manufacturer, Apple.Twenty-three publishers rejected Dr. Seuss’s first chil-dren's book. The 24th publisher sold six millioncopies!

You may neverbecome a brilliant his-tory maker, a worldclass triathlete or agreat inventor likeEdison. You may neverbecome famous likeMadonna (thank Godyou won’t!), but every

one of us, if we take the opportunities presented to us,with a will to keep on persevering and a determinationto succeed, can receive a measure of success thatotherwise would have evaded us.

There is a brilliant story of a basketball coachattempting to motivate his players to persevere


Twenty-three publishersrejected Dr Seuss’s firstchildren’s book. The24th publisher sold sixmillion copies!


through a difficult season. Halfway through the sea-son, he stood before his team and asked, “Did MichaelJordan ever quit?” The team responded, “No!” Heyelled back, “What about the Wright brothers, didthey ever give up?” “No!” the team resounded. “DidWayne Gretzky ever quit?” Again the team yelled,“No!” “Did Elma Macalister ever quit?” There was along silence. Finally one player was bold enough toask, “Who’s Elma Macalister, we never heard of him.”The coach yelled back, “Of course you’ve never heardof him, he quit.”

Planning helps you finish what you started. You’vegot to stick to your game plan. Understand that lifeand success must be planned. Why is it that most peo-ple spend more time planning their vacations thanthey do their successor their entire life?It’s absurd that wecan plan a one-weekor two-week vaca-tion, but devote solittle time to plan-ning our lives, map-ping out a strategy totake us to where wewant to be. It’s theplanning and preparation that we put in to our successthat matters. Champion NFL footballer, RogerStarbuck, said, “In business or in football it takes a lotof unspectacular preparation [planning] to producespectacular results.”

97PERSEVERANCE

Planning helps youfinish what you

started. You’ve got tostick to your game

plan. Understand thatlife and success

must be planned.


Now, take that big picture plan and break it intobite-sized pieces. In sports one game, one event, doesnot make a champion. It’s a series of events, a series ofvictories, and also, most times, a series of losses that

build the sportingchampion.

Let me give youanother example thatmight help illustratethis point. When yougo to a smorgasbordrestaurant, everythingis laid out before you.Your eyes almost popout of your head as you

look at the salads, savouries, desserts, steaks, chicken,fries, and all the delicacies that will add incredibleamounts of fat to your perfectly conditioned body! Youwant to try everything, but here's the point! You can’teat everything at once. Instead you’ve got to start bitby bit, piece by piece. At least that’s how I approach asmorgasbord. (I often watch people pile everythingonto one small plate.) I remember once going to a $10all-you-can-eat buffet. My friend Sam had an incredi-ble capacity to eat and he loaded his plate so full it wasa miniature version of the leaning tower of Pisa! Hesat down, with every imaginable and conceivable dishmixed together, looked at me and said, “Well Pat,there’s a dollar’s worth.” He was determined to havethat smorgasbord all on one plate ten times over.That’s not the way you should approach life. You’ve


“In business or in football it takes a lotof unspectacularpreparation [planning]to produce spectacularresults.”Roger Starbuck


got to take it piece by piece, portion by portion. Youbuild a house one brick at a time. You build wealth adollar at a time.

In September 1992, Mae Jamison became the firstAfrican-American woman in space. Few appreciatedthe persistence of her journey. Mae had been enthusedby the fledgling 1960’s TV series Star Trek. She gradu-ated from college with degrees in chemical engineer-ing, African-American history and medicine. Maelearnt three languages and served in the Peace Corp inAfrica before she wentinto space aboard thespace shuttle. Her persis-tence paid a greatreward.

Most of us achieve somuch, and yet give upbecause we don’t feelgood about where we’reat, and we forget how farwe’ve actually come.Management author,Fred Pryor, said, “Onereason we don’t attainour goals is we often focus on how far away we are fromfeeling satisfaction, rather than how far we’ve alreadycome.”

Helmut Schmidt put it this way, “It must be bornein mind that the tragedy of life doesn’t lie in notreaching your goal, the tragedy lies in having no goalto reach.” It isn’t a calamity to die with dreams unful-

99PERSEVERANCE

“One reason wedon’t attain our

goals is we oftenfocus on how far

away we are fromfeeling satisfaction,

rather than howfar we’ve already

come.”Fred Pryor


filled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It isn’t a dis-grace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to haveno stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is sin.

With opportunities, we’ve got to aim high, plan andthen take the ground piece by piece!

100 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKSORTUNITY KNOCKS


OP

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A personal note from Pat Mesiti

The book you have in your hands holds one of the most powerful keys that man has ever known. Life and success are about two types of people: those who take oppor tunities and those who don’t. Right now you have the oppor tunity to read this book and ignore its content. Reading it will help steer you on a course that will benefit you, your family and your friends. It may determine the difference between your financial future or failure. It may be the difference between a happy and fulfilled life or a disgruntled and despairing one. The oppor tunity is yours. It’s there for the taking.

Someone once said that many people do what children do at the sea shore: they get a handful of sand and let it slip through their fingers grain by grain. Don’t let this be the story of your life . Let the insides of this brief and often humorous book take you on a journey of discovery that can open the door to your extraordinar y life .

Pat Mesiti – author, speaker and prosperity activist – has a passion to bring out the best in people. He is a highly effective income acceleration coach. His passion is to equip and empower people to experience growth and prosperity by helping them to reach their full potential. Pat regularly speaks to sold-out audiences throughout the world and his books and materials have sold over two million copies.

ISBN No 0 9587336 1 9

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