"Why does everyone else get lucky breaks?"
No, it isn't because you are worthless.
This article is about opportunity, and why some people seem to get loads of them whilst others seem to get none.
The irony is that many of you will not read this, so miss out of the opportunity to learn.
Such is life.
The value of prostituting yourself
Last Friday evening I was at a church in Rothiemurchus, near Aviemore, prostituting myself for a few quid. A local group runs a monthly musical event through the Summer where entry is free and they ask for donations from patrons ‘to allow them to leave,’ which they donate to charity. I had been invited to speak about our School’s Breakfast Club because they had agreed to donate their cash to us.
I had a loose plan for what I wanted to say, around the key points I wanted to get across yet I was unsure how to start. Rathe than stress, I have learned that if I give the Universe time and space and don’t push it, the Universe will provide. And so it was that as I sat in the front row - ready and poised to launch into my monologue assault - the music stopped and Sue, one of the performers, stood up to read poems.
Sue introduced the poems and read them one by one. The last one was about the NHS, and a line jumped up and grabbed me by the collar, even though I wasn’t wearing a collar! (I was wearing a v-neck pinky/purply knitted top, which might be a sweater, might be a jumper, might be something else, with a purple t-shirt underneath.) She mentioned the line, “Access to all.”
The line entered my mind and didn’t jump straight out at me, nor made me sweat (see how I beautifully linked back to the sartorial discussions of the last paragraph..?), but it hung in my mind and my curiosity grew. I played with it in my mind and knew the Universe had given me my starting point.
Sue finished her poems and, unknown to me, I was next up to perform.
I started my talk by mentioning Sue by name and telling the audience one line had perfectly summed up what we had wanted to achieve for the Breakfast Club - access for all. If the Breakfast Club was simply about providing access to food for those identified as ‘in need,’ then we would be stigmatising them and missing the wider part of inclusion and all-round welfare. And so our Breakfast Club was ‘access for all.’
I continued on, and 32 seconds later, had everyone on the feet, clapping and cheering and dozens of people offering to sign over their homes to me to pay for the Breakfast Club… Sorry, not sure what happened there… I continued on and did received a warm applause and hopefully we will get a fair few quid from the donations.
Opportunity = Curiosity + Openness
What this event reinforced in me was that if you plan too much and have everything scripted to within an inch of it’s life, what you say will likely fall flat because it doesn’t connect with the audience. You might be saying great stuff about what you are doing but it remains disconnected from who you are talking with.
Take this away from giving talks and I recognise the pattern.
If I remain curious to what is happening around me I am much more likely to identify ways to connect with the people around me, and what is happening around me.
If I am open to changing my plans or approach, even late in the day, then I can make use of the opportunities that my curiosity has identified.
Opportunity starts with curiosity
If you are curious about the world around you and the world within you (if they are indeed 2 separate worlds…) then you will ask questions and wonder about how things work, how you fit with the world and what the art of the possible is. You are more likely to question and challenge the status quo, even if in your own mind, and you are more likely to consider alternatives.
However, that is not enough.
With nothing but curiosity, you will be like Mycroft Holmes; more incisive in his thinking and greater in his powers of deduction than Sherlock ever was, but so lazy he hardly ever left his Diogenes Club in London.
What you need to translate your curiosity into opportunities is the willingness to understand that you are not the centre of the Universe, but a small interconnected part of it. You need to grasp that what you have in your mind at this moment can and should always be ready for reinvention and recreation.
You must be ready to respond to the world around you.
This is opportunity.
This is why some people seem to get all the opportunities, all the luck supposedly, and progress.
This is why some people don’t.
Consider how curious you are, how open to the Universe you are
I have just started reading Michael Rosen’s Book of Play, and I have restarted playing with words and ideas. This is stimulating my curiosity.
I know many of you won’t have an issue with curiosity, but being willing to be open to late offers from the Universe… I know that may scare the shit out of you.
Consider which is your strength and work on the other.
Make the most of the opportunities that are, like love, all around.
(See how I linked to both Love Actually, Wet, Wet, Wet! and The Troggs! - what an opportunity that was!)