SHARING IDEAS MAGAZINE

Spring 2007

www.Walters-Intl.com

ACCELERATING OPPORTUNITY
By Beverly Sastri

Move your business forward with a minimum of force. Your business success depends on
creating or seizing as many opportunities as possible. Following are three strategies you can use to move your business forward with a minimum of force and a maximum of ease. While these perspectives are easy to accept philosophically, their greatest benefit occurs when you actively apply them to all events great and small throughout your day.

Expect good fortune
From this moment forward, assume every event that happens in your life is conspiring on your behalf. Be on a daily lookout for the gift, lesson or guidance that is being presented
to you. Do this in every area of your life, not just the areas that relate specifically to your business. Opportunities and insights come in many guises. They might arise from a brief exchange you have with the person ahead of you at checkout. They might sneak into your awareness through a line in a song, an article in a paper or a comment made by one of your friends. Clients have experienced “Aha!” moments from seeing an advertisement on a billboard or the side of a truck.

It’s especially important to be alert for what I call inside-out opportunities: the ones that come disguised as setbacks or disappointments. If in spite of your best efforts you missed getting that big client or gig, trust that this happened as part of a larger process that
continues to unfold on your behalf. Learn whatever lessons you can, be grateful for those lessons and move on. I’m sure you’ve all had experiences that initially seemed to be the end of the world yet later turned out to be invaluable for the insights, wisdom or growth
they provided.

The more you train yourself to look for synchronicities the more apparent and abundant
they become. And with them comes a new level of ease and confidence in knowing the
underlying dynamics of life are designed to support your growth and success.

Stimulate business growth through personal transformation The business you have now reflects the person you are now. Want a bigger business? Then you will need to grow “bigger” as well. Events will conspire to show you old beliefs, behaviors or attitudes that were once helpful but now need to be exchanged for new perspectives or practices that increase your personal power and freedom. If you have always succeeded by doing everything yourself, further business growth may require you to learn how freeing it is to outsource parts of the business or use mentors and consultants to maximize results.

Be on the lookout for transformational moments that push you toward new, more
powerful ways of thinking and acting. The hallmarks of a transformational moment are:
1) it generally happens when you least want to deal with it (I hate that part), 2) the circumstances feel uncomfortable, threatening or overwhelming, 3) there’s no way out other than to deal with what’s going on, and 4) at a deeper instinctual level you just know your normal pattern of behavior isn’t going to work.

Again, trust that this is all happening for a reason and try to discern what new approach,
belief or attitude will serve you best. If you can’t get it in the heat of the moment, don’t
worry. You did the best you could – now turn to your colleagues and mentors to evaluate
what happened and discover what you can do differently next time.

It’s a wonderful thing that personal transformation both drives and is driven by business
growth. You end up with the best of both worlds: an abundant lifestyle as well as the
insights and wisdom that allow you to enjoy that lifestyle to the fullest.

The Rule of Three
If an idea, person, place or thing is brought to your attention three or more times via completely different sources, pay attention – you’re being given a lead to follow up on.
Don’t try to figure out exactly how the connection is supposed to serve you. Just assume it’s meant to, follow up and be open to whatever benefits may come. It may be that the
person or idea represents the opportunity in and of themselves, or they may be a steppingstone to a larger treasure.

Over the course of a year the name of a particular consultant kept being brought to my
attention: through a brochure, networking group, friend’s recommendation, bookstore
display and a newspaper article.

With no clear idea as to how this was supposed to play out (and feeling foolish to boot)
I finally called the woman, introduced myself and explained that something I called the
Rule of Three kept bringing her name to my attention. Thankfully, her sense of intrigue
overruled her fear of a potential stalker and we agreed to meet. From that meeting a
delightful and productive relationship has evolved. We have tipped each other to numerous
resources, ideas and leads, and I am amazed at how much I would have missed had I not made that initial call.

Keep opportunity knocking
The most effective way to be a catalyst for opportunity is to work in partnership with the
events of your life instead of in opposition or ignorance. Trust that your commitment to
growing your business has been duly noted and events are now moving into alignment to
assist you. Become alert for opportunities to occur in the most unexpected places and you
will discover a way of growing your business that is easier and richer than you could have
ever imagined.