“Knock, knock! Who’s there?” Opportunity; Opportunity who? Opportunity of a lifetime. I don’t think so! We’re not living in a fantasy world. One of my Mother’s favorite and personal quotes was “Opportunity aint gonna knock on your door, so quit waiting around like it’s coming soon and go out and find it!” She always wanted us to excel in all that we could, so she made it a point to push us and push us to do better than she ever did.
Finding a way out of the ghetto and the struggles that went with being poor was never easy, but the things that came easy were never our Mother’s concern. She needed us to keep our heads held high and stand proud and feel strong about our accomplishments because she knew (and reminded us) that if we didn’t do it for ourselves, no one was going to do it for us.
Our motivation to reach our highest potential came from exactly that. Remembering what we were taught, learning our history as a “black people” and paying attention to what life dealt us and then turning things around for our benefit—In other words, learning to use what was meant to play against us, work for us.
See, some people got it all twisted. They think that if they lay back and wait for their time to shine, it will just come. Instead, they should be “pounding the pavement” and making a strong effort to search for the many opportunities that are available to them, but realizing that it’s not theirs for the taking if they don’t act because there are always many others who are willing to take action and not let the opportunity slip by them (assuming it might not come back around).
“Talk is cheap!” Some people are Dreamers and others are Doers. The dreamers typically DREAM BIG and they convince themselves that they will one day have their plans worked out in such a way that they will be set for life. On the other hand, the doers ACT! They don’t act later, they act FAST and they act NOW! Because they are smart enough to know that if they don’t, an opportunity that is here now may be gone tomorrow. As the saying goes, “why put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” So don’t wait until opportunity knocks on your door. Chances are . . . . . . It never will.
