“The Singer, The Piano Man, and The Guy Who Always Missed”

The Singer:

One day, the waiter was waiting tables when he sees one of the biggest names in the music industry sitting in the restaurant. The waiter decides to seize the opportunity and do the unthinkable: he clears the table next to the music big-wig and gets up onto the table and sings a song.

He knew one thing, he was about to be fired from the restaurant, but he also knew another thing, how many times would this door of opportunity open up?

Needless to say, the rest is history, Frank Sinatra – the star – was born.  What if Old Blue Eyes didn’t seize that opportunity on that day at the restaurant?

The Piano Man:

A stagehand for saxophonist Kenny G, was one day in the auditorium with Kenny, just the two of them, when he started to play every song for him on the piano that was set up. Kenny didn’t even know the stagehand could play the ivory keys! But guess who is now the lead keyboardist for Kenny G and travels with and for him around the world?

You never know when the door of opportunity is going to open wide. For some, it comes early on in life, for others…later on. But for all of those who become successful: they were ready.

Are your skills as sharp as can be? Are they enough so when that door opportunity opens for you, you can perform?

Is your character deep enough to handle success? Are you working hard to position yourself now? Developing your skills and your character?

The Guy Who Always Missed:

Dean Rhodes was a man who missed opportunity after opportunity. Dean was friends with Dave Thomas. Dave Thomas was starting a business called Wendy’s and invited Dean to invest in the venture. Dean turned it down. In 2010, Wendy’s was the world’s third largest hamburger fast food chain with 6,650 locations.

Later on, Dean met an older man named Colonel Sanders. Again Dean was given an opportunity to buy stock in his company before it went national. Dean turned it down as well because he didn’t agree with some of the Colonel’s ideas and didn’t think it would work. Of course you know that Colonel Sanders is the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken which now operates 5,200 restaurants in the U.S. alone.

Not long after, Dean was in the restaurant equipment business, he often had equipment sales guys in his office trying to sell him their machines. One of the sales guys name was Ray Kroc.

Ray told Dean about his concept burger place and recommended he invest in it to help get it started. Of course, our good friend Dean would not invest in Ray’s little burger place called McDonald’s.

By now you think he would have learned to be a little bit more optimistic and take a chance, but no….

A few years after the Ray Kroc meeting, Dean met a lawyer on a cruise. They got to talking over the duration of the cruise and the lawyer suggested to Dean that he should invest in his son’s brand new computer company. It had just started and they needed some capital to buy equipment.

Dean didn’t invest because it had a funny name: Microsoft.

Opportunities abound everywhere in life. Be ready.

Are you ready? Do you have a story where you either seized or missed an opportunity?