Individual opportunities are TIME-SENSITIVE and FINITE.
They come and go quickly, like lightning. The difference? We’ve debunked the myth about lightning never striking in the same spot twice. Opportunity, on the other hand, is one and done.
Bad news: An opportunity not taken does not have a neutral effect. It is a net loss. After 5 years of not acting on opportunities, you will not break even. It is failure. The sum of consistent bad decisions lands you somewhere short of your desired outcome. Maybe it’s worth lowering the expectations that you created for yourself. Maybe not. Nonetheless, we all have an ideal lifestyle that we aim for. Every time lightning strikes and you don’t find a way to bottle it, your future, better-self, winces in agony.
Good news: The flow of opportunities is never-ending. While no one opportunity will ever resurface a second time the same, it’s purposeless to dwell on having missed a single one. There are fresh opportunities sandwiched between each passing moment of our busy lives. Your next opportunity might be more powerful than the previous. It also might not be. Opportunity is one of the most uncertain, uncontrollable contributors to our lives, it is not to be taken lightly. Be prepared to take action. The next chance is your best chance.
Infinite opportunities, finite amount of time to act on each one, and never knowing the difference.
No matter how predictable an outcome, you will only ever know the results of made choices. You can never truly quantify the positive or negative implications of passing on an opportunity, but one things is certain:
In choosing to ACT ON OPPORTUNITY, success is as viable as failure, so you might as well try.
A note from the author:
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Love & Areté,
Jakob Gollon
JAKOB'S JOURNAL 
4 responses to “Opportunity Not Taken”
Great post Jake.
I do have some questions. How do we know if an opportunity, when presented, is a viable one we should be taking? Like you said, opportunities come and go all of the time. Do you jump at every one which crosses our path? Do we take the time to evaluate it by pro/con? What if the opportunity has a short shelf life when we can make the decision to seize it?
I appreciate your thoughts and feedback.
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Matt, thanks so much for taking the time to put in thought and engagement with the post! So, I suppose I didn’t do a great job of establishing my position when writing this. The “opportunities” that I refer to in this post are established as worthwhile already. I suppose that I made it sound like you should not miss ANY opportunity, when in reality, many that come up may not be in line with your purpose. For me, I use my gut a lot, BUT HERE’S THE CATCH. You can’t use your gut if you haven’t already specifically engineered your purpose/direction, which is ok. Spend some time figuring out what sort of goals or changes or achievements that you’d really like to focus on, then consider each opportunity in comparison to how efficiently it helps you reach that. An “opportunity not taken” has nothing to do with something that would be a waste of time, and more to do with something that you KNOW would benefit you, but you couldn’t seem to gather the necessary courage, time, or willpower to pursue it. In my personal process, it is a very brief pros/cons, short-term/long-term value articulation, and then I decide whether or not it’s worth my time. That said, I have a pretty clear direction, so it makes it easy. If you aren’t sure where you want to be in your life, evaluating those opportunities can take longer, as they should. It might, however, mean that you miss one as well. Lastly, if it has a short shelf life, and you are not rock solid certain that it’s what you should be doing, then don’t fret it. The only ones that you should truly worry about passing on are the ones that SCREAM AT YOU to take advantage of. Other than that, wait for the next one, and be more prepared to evaluate it. Hope this helps! If you have specific examples ever, or need advice, feel free to ask for my input man! Thanks again brother
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Awesome response. Thanks Jake!
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Always brother. Anything I can do to help.
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