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How to seize opportunities

Written by: Sue Stockdale

Article Overview: Having the ability to seize opportunities is vital if you want to be enterprising. This skill can be developed and will help you to start up or grow your business. Sue Stockdale saw the chance to become a polar adventurer, something she had always dreamed of, when she noticed a newspaper advert. By grabbing the opportunity it changed her life dramatically and became the reason she started up her company, Mission Possible. Read about how you need to be thinking in order to grab opportunities when they appear.

How to seize opportunities

As a young girl, I dreamed of doing something really adventurous having read stories of men conquering Mount Everest and rowing across the Atlantic. However, I believed that to be a successful adventurer you had to be a man or have lots of money. Years later I was to disprove this belief by becoming the first British woman to walk to the Magnetic North Pole.

If you feel passionate enough about turning your dreams into reality then you can seize opportunities to make them happen as you start to notice them. In 1995 I was reading a newspaper in the garden, when I spotted a feature which said: ‘WANTED ten novice arctic explorers’ – to take part in an expedition to walk 350 miles to the Magnetic North Pole.

Lounging in the sun, it was hard to imagine what that would be like, but I recognised immediately that this was THE opportunity I had been waiting for. The advert went on to describe the qualities that the organisers were looking for which were: the ability to work in a team, and the ability to raise £15,000. I knew I could work in a team, but had no idea how to raise that huge amount of money.

When we are faced with potential opportunities like this one, people tend to base their decisions on past experience and what they feel is within their own limits of possibility. However, if you want to undertake a new challenge it means stepping outside your comfort zone. I was prepared to do this because I wanted to learn. I wanted to know if I could survive in the Arctic. There was no reason to delay so I sent off for more details. When the brochure arrived, it showed a picture of some adventurers skiing across the ice, dragging sledges. But the most significant thing that hit me were the words on the front page. Are you MAN enough for the Ultimate Challenge?

Immediately my mind raced back to those books I had read all those years ago as a child, about all those MEN who had been successful adventurers. I thought that the organisers of this trip had made the same assumption as I had as a youngster. Only men could be successful adventurers. I was incensed. Suddenly that became all the motivation I needed to follow up on this opportunity. I’ll show them I thought to myself. If they think only men can do this, I am going to prove them wrong.

Think about what motivates you in business. Is the satisfaction of making a lot of money, or seeing the face of that satisfied customer? Or is it proving somebody wrong who told you it would never be possible? Understanding your own motivation is an important part of being able to seize opportunities. You need to understand what you are passionate about and then also recognise what holds you back.

I always ask myself the question “what is the worst that could happen?” when faced with a new opportunity, and if I can accept the answer, then I know I must move on and take action. Knowing WHY you are taking action also helps you when the going gets tough. Some days in the Arctic I was physically and mentally exhausted and I did ask myself the question “why am I doing this?” Deep down, I already knew the answer.

So if you take time to understand your personal motivation and are not afraid to challenge your own beliefs and assumptions, then when the next opportunity comes along for your business, you will be ready to seize it with both hands!

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Article Tags: adventurer, adventurers, advert, amount of money, arctic explorers, belief, british woman, comfort zone, lots of money, magnetic north pole, mount everest, new challenge, novice, one people, organisers, rowing across the atlantic, sledges, turning your dreams into reality, ultimate challenge, young girl



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