I’ll never forget a banner that a former coworker of mine once hung on the wall above her cubicle. It was visible from everywhere in the office, and it read: opportunityisnowhere.

“Why would anyone want to put up such a depressing sign?” I thought.

Finally one day I went and asked her what the sign was about.

What do you see?

She told me that it could be read one of two ways:

Opportunity is Nowhere
(the way I’d read it)

or

Opportunity is Now Here
(the way I wished I’d read it)

After that, I became fascinated with seeing opportunities everywhere, even if there didn’t appear to be any at first glance.

Along the way, I also learned that you can always create your own opportunities.

Creating your own opportunities

Who says you have to wait for an opportunity to come up, or for someone to offer one to you? If there’s something you want, make your own opportunity.

Oftentimes creating your own opportunity looks a lot like doing some hard work. It can involve things like volunteering someplace, working extra hours at your current job, asking someone to mentor you and then helping them on projects, going back to school, or starting a side business. Sometimes it means keeping after someone til they finally give you a shot just to make you go away. (Then of course, you’ve got to wow them.)

Most of all, creating your own opportunities means looking at things from a different perspective. It also involves being proactive and persistent. It’s normal to hear a lot of no’s in life before getting to yes — but the yeses will come if you keep trying.

Go out and create your own opportunity.