“Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them.” — William Arthur Ward
A young man wished to marry the farmer’s beautiful daughter. He went to the farmer to ask his permission.
The farmer looked him over and said, “Son, go stand out in that field. I’m going to release three bulls, one at a time. If you can catch the tail of any one of the three bulls, you can marry my daughter.”
The young man stood in the pasture awaiting the first bull. The barn door opened and out ran the biggest, meanest-looking bull he had ever seen. He decided that one of the next bulls had to be a better choice than this one, so he ran over to the side and let the bull pass through the pasture out the back gate. The barn door opened again. Unbelievable. He had never seen anything so big and fierce in his life. It stood pawing at the ground, grunting, slinging slobber as it eyed him. Whatever the next bull was like, it had to be a better choice than this one. He ran to the fence and let the bull pass through the pasture, out the back gate.
The door opened a third time. A smile came across his face. This was the weakest, scrawniest little bull he had ever seen. This one was his bull. As the bull came running by, he positioned himself just right and jumped at just the exact moment.
He grabbed… but the bull had no tail!
Every one of you reading this blog has friends, family, a business, a neighborhood, a city, a church, heck, a whole world full of opportunities and influence!
Let me say this my amigos… Being able to see the opportunities is just the first step. If we are going to see to it that our dreams come to fruition, we must be leaders who seize opportunities of significance. Not wait until everything is JUST RIGHT. We must act on the opportunities in front of us because that’s what allows us to truly make a difference. Don’t sit there and wait for the stars to align perfectly. Go for it, seize the day, make mistakes, learn from them, grow from them, and move on. Analysis paralysis is a real thing – Overthinking and waiting for the perfect moment, and you’ll never make the first move!
Does that not fire you up on the inside? I know it does me. As we embark into the new week, journal down three areas in your leadership where you know you want to grow. Once you have them documented, I encourage you to pay attention in your organization in the coming days. Clarity is created by first knowing where you want to go next. The opportunities are all there, you might just be waiting for the perfect moment to seize the right bull, only to learn it has no tail! And that will always discourage you and place you in a doom loop that is hard to get out of!
What are you doing with the opportunities to grow that are in front of you? This honestly might be the most important question for you to ask yourself as a leader. I know that’s a tough one to think of, but here’s why I believe it’s so powerful: None of us can guarantee tomorrow and yesterday is already too late. You don’t know when you will run out of chances!