interesthings #12 - How to create opportunities
In this interesthings: Create opportunities for yourself, Fred Again..., Tim Cook and cheap Youtube Premium
Goodmorning! Oh man, spring is fully upon us here in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is normally a quite wet and cold place, warm days are really welcome. You forget how much more enjoyable life is when it is just a bit warmer.
Last week I told you in my intro about the struggles that I have and how life is not a straight line. My dad compared this to the Troué ‘d Arenberg. One of the famous cobbled sectors in the Paris-Roubaix cycling race.
Everything in your life could go easy but you might encounter a difficult cobbled sector in life, and you have to deal with it. You must pedal through it because after you’ve ridden the Arenberg forest, you are more grateful to look back on what you’ve achieved.
Let’s get straight into this weeks topic: Creating opportunities
- Mark
Creating opportunities
One of my goals in 2023 is to engage more in the cycling community. To achieve this goal, I want to ask a lot of people for advice on how to get more engaged in this community. Knowing from experience, asking is scary. Asking for something, especially if you don’t know the other person is challenging. The fear of being judged might prevent you from creating new opportunities.
So how do you create opportunities for yourself? Let’s dive in!
The Benjamin Franklin effect
People like other people more after doing a favour for them. This is called the Benjamin Franklin effect, who wrote the following in his personal dairy:
“He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.”
What Benjamin learned is that once someone has done a favour for you, they instantly like you a bit more. As humans we have are connected to each other. We need each other to survive. In the early days of humankind this was to actually survive in the world. There were many dangers that faced the humans then.
In 2023 we do not (normally) have these dangers anymore, instead we are a society that is built on helping us all to go forward.
How Lionel Messi created opportunities
Instagram shows you individuals that achieved a perfect body, a succesful career or a talent in painting. The thought might occur that you could achieve this succes with little effort. The ridiculously amount of ‘get rich in a day’ courses is an example of trying to achieve succes without little effort.
If you ask them, these individuals will tell you that they needed to fail a lot before getting to the level that they are now. Lionel Messi wasn’t instantly the best football player in the world. He needed to put a lot of effort in.
Messi also created opportunities to achieve his goals. Let me give you an example.
Messi was too small to become a professional football player because he lacked growing hormones. Doctors estimated that Messi would not grow beyond 1.39 meters. That is too small to make any first team in professional football. To make it worse, the famous Argentinian club River Plate was not willing to pay the 500-dollar bill to do a hormone therapy in order to make him grow more. The family of Messi had no opportunities to show the world how good of a player he was.
They reached out to a relative in Barcelona that had connections to one of the biggest clubs in the world: FC Barcelona. By chance, Barcelona agreed to take the 13-year old on a trial and pay for his hormone therapy. The rest is history.
The family of Messi created an opportunity by asking a relative for a favour. Ofcourse, Lionel Messi still had to put a lot of work in to become the player he is, but this created opportunity helped him tremendously on his path to greatness.
Remember, every person you might look up to had to create opportunities, ask favours to get to the level they are now. And they are most of the time willing to help others to achieve their goals by handing out favours.
How to create opportunities?
Firstly, get somewhat of an idea what your goal or path is. This could be your struggle. Remember, that is also a goal. And others can help you with that.
After this goal or path is set, you have multiple ways to create opportunities. I will give you a few ways that I use to create opportunities for myself.
Make a shortlist of people
You have a goal, and that goal has probably been achieved by others. Figure out who these people are and put them on a shortlist. A list that you can use in order to obtain your goals. Work on your list by contacting these people.
Communicate your goal to others
At the start of 2023 I had the plan to buy a van for myself. So I was searching for available vans online but had no luck. Then I spoke to some friends and mentioned that I had this plan, and they almost all knew someone that might have a van for sale or could help me.
Eventually I did not buy a van for various reasons but this search taught me the following: Having a goal is something that you set for yourself. If you never communicate this goal to others, they are not able to help you achieve this goal.
Communicate to others what your goal or plan is, you will be surprised with the amount of help people can provide. You could do this by mentioning your goal in a conversation or posting your goal on LinkedIn.
Go cold
At a previous job I was asked to do cold sales. Cold sales is calling or mailing someone that does not know you in order to sell your product or services. I was given a list with multiple companies and was ordered to just call them and sell our service. I called one company, went to my boss and told him that I would never do it again.
Last weeks I sent a few people in the cycling world for advice on how to become more engaged in the cycling community. Did I know them? No. Did they all respond? No, but some did, and they helped me to get more engaged in the cycling world.
Why did the first type of cold calling not work for me and the second one did? Because I believed in the second one. I believed that by asking strangers for their help it would bring me closer to my goal.
Cold calling/texting is scary, you could get hurt by people ignoring you or thinking of you in a certain way. But it is also a way to open new opportunities.
He created opportunities that made him the best soccer player in the world.
To wrap it up
Creating opportunities will help you a great deal. It helped Messi become the biggest football player in the world, and it will help you. Go talk to that person you admire or let others know your goal. You will get there.
I hope that these tips help you, and you see this as an opportunity to talk to that person or ask that favour. Have fun practicing and achieving your goals!
- Mark
Things
The 5 things that inspire the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook. Sent a message to my team directly after watching this video. Inspire others!
The Tiny Desk concert by Fred Again brought tears to my eyes. This guy is a musical treasure and such an inspiration on life.
I watched the series of the 21/22 football season of Real Madrid. This team was something special and seeing behind the scenes how they built an atmosphere of winning truly inspires. Watch it on Apple TV.
Did you know that you can have Youtube Premium for just €12 a year instead of €6,99 a month? Just use VPN, set it to India and go to this page.
Last week I wanted to send a message to someone but didn’t. It was a really vulnerable and head-first message. I send it to my personal WhatsApp group (just containing me) to remind me of this message that I could have sent but didn’t. Every day the message pops up, and I am glad that I did not send it.
Sometimes life surprises you in so many beautiful ways. Trust me.
Gif of the week
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Have a great week!
- Mark