Taking vs Creating Opportunity

Note To Self: Start Creating Opportunities

I’m very good at seizing on opportunities. There aren’t many that have come my way that I didn’t hold onto. My problem however has been my inability to create opportunities. A subtle but very important difference. The difference between taking advantage of opportunities and creating them is the difference between being the CEO and the founder.

The difference is important because realizing your dreams requires creating opportunities for them to happen. That to me is the real definition of success. Creating the opportunities needed to accomplish your dreams. If you can do that, then you can be successful.

Up until this point in my life I’ve been a taker. An opportunity to go to college provided by my mother. An opportunity to work and make money in a family business. With money in my pocket, the opportunity to take time off and figure out what I wanted to do. Yes, every one of these opportunities required work. Graduating college required studying and going to class (sometimes). Working my way up the corporate ladder required sacrificing relationships. But that’s it. I was handed an opportunity to work.

Now, I want to flip that and be the creator of opportunities for myself and others. At this point in my life I’m focused on solving that problem. All I have right now is a strong work ethic, and my knowledge from life lived, which will have to be enough.

Back to Work?

Back to Work

It feels like every time I start to seriously consider finding a full time job, like the one I had, the universe reminds me why that’s a bad idea. Today the universe was two women complaining about their jobs in the sauna. 

Special ops. Approval. No accountability. The list of complaints goes on and on and it just makes me realize how stupid the corporate culture is, the reason I left, and the reason I hope to never return. 

There’s a saying. If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together. I think there’s a third missing component. If you don’t want to go at all, go corporate. 

Corporate is what kills anything that is good. Altruism. Momentum. Accountability. Everything goes down the drain when a company starts to get big. People everywhere making little progress, calling it work. 

It’s a shame. 

Since moving to Colorado a few weeks ago and thinking about what the next chapter of my career will be, I’ve been seriously contemplating corporate work. But after five years out I fear I wouldn’t make it. 

After you’ve been out for too long you become unemployable. Both by the employer and for yourself. I want a job where I can get the maximum amount of productivity out of the minimal amount of work. But I don’t think it exists. 

I’ve submitted my resume over 40 times in the last few years and have received a no thanks no reply email in return to every single one. 

Well I don’t want to work for you anyway. We both know I’m not a good fit.