June 4, 2007

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Finding Hidden Opportunities

At the risk of sounding like an over-hyped personal development “guru”, I’d like to share a little story about finding hidden opportunities.

I work in a fairly mundane industry at an electric utility company. Most of my time consists of entering material unit codes, plotting graphs, and meetings with county officials that drag on and on; not exactly life in the fast lane.

One could go on with this type of humdrum without expecting anything more, and many do, but if you keep your ear to the ground, unexpected and pleasant surprises can come your way.

Although most employees’ responsibilities at my company are fairly routine, there is one employee in another department who gets to do something every week that’s pretty cool for a job at a utility company: He surveys equipment by helicopter.

Last week I hit the lottery and received a call from the above employee who asked, “Wanna go for a ride?” I of course jumped at the opportunity and instead of sitting at a desk the entire day, I was skimming across tree tops at speeds of up to 120mph until late in the afternoon. What a trip!

So was it by chance that I hit the lottery? Maybe. But did it also help that I had become friends with the helicopter employee and expressed my interest a few times in going up in the chopper? Yes I think so.

I don’t claim to hold any little known secrets about how to find hidden opportunities; what I did wasn’t extraordinary at all. Actually it’s extremely unmemorable. But there is something important I took away from this experience. And that something is that there are opportunities everywhere, you just have to get out there and grab them. Sometimes it will take little or no effort on your part except for giving yourself that initial push in the right direction.

So get out there and find the hidden opportunities sitting just below the surface. You’ll be amazed at what can pop up.