Doors of opportunity, and its invisibility

How to prevent the caterpillar and the ant situation?

Life may seem monotonous for the most part of it. You have a routine, a purpose for your actions that incremental add up to your final goal. You are doing all that any normal person would do.

Until one day someone comes up and says: ‘Alright guys, the application for Opportunity X is now open and go apply!’

Wait, how did that person know about it? And why are so many people nodding their heads?? Why did no one tell me about this earlier???

You go to the website with details, scroll and see the questions they ask. Chances are they are not easy and something you can cook up on the spot. Nevertheless, you do what one can at the moment and send the applications before the deadline.

You cross your fingers in anticipation for the results but deep inside a nagging feeling of inadequacy in quality of application starts to fog your mind and when the D-date arrives, chances are your doubts are proven to be right.

You sit back, wondering why is the world unfair and does not tell you at the right time about this? Why is that a handful were already prepared both in experience and confidence to give a quality application.

Most importantly, why was the door to this opportunity kept invisible until it opened?

Almost missed if no one tells you ahead of time

The world of opportunities we live in

Let us be honest — this century has the greatest number of opportunities than any of the previous years. This is due to the extensive reach of the Internet backed with people driven to create opportunities to grow for others.

In such a environment, it becomes natural for a few to assume it is obvious that opportunity X is available to all. Yet as we saw above that did not seem to be the case.

Oddly enough, the abundance of opportunities keep us oblivious from discovering them. Something will come knocking at our doors says one. Yes, it shall come to you at a point of time, but there will be hardly any time to prepare for it.

It is only when you see the door from a distance can you be prepared enough to walk through when it opens. For example, if you know that company X will be opening its portal for fellowship in skill Y, you can spend the next few months building your portfolio accordingly and stand a better chance of getting selected.

Photo by Robert Ruggiero on Unsplash

The problem with visible doors

But then, why are these doors invisible?

I used to think of this question quite regularly. Why do people confine secrets to themselves and not make a conscious effort to tell the rest? I then made an effort to tell everyone I came across about opportunities that would help them develop their skill Y through opportunity X that was coming, and encourage them to prepare it.

There are some good output as a result. But slowly I started realizing:

1. Not everyone will value the effort you put in to tell them about it if they do not understand your views.
2. You will be exhausted of energy in time and fail to sustain the propagation of the good news in the world.

I reflected and realized that there is a reason why doors are invisible. It is because only those who are preparing ahead of time tend to be deserving of applying. These people are aware about it and make an effort to prepare themselves for it.

In a way, it is similar to the ant and caterpillar fable. The ants wisely spent their summer to collect together their resources while the caterpillar enjoyed thoroughly. The shortsightedness of the later proved to be dangerous in the winter as the former safely lived in their well guarded colony.

Most of us live our lives like the caterpillar, being oblivious to the real world and when the D-date surprisingly arrives, we are left squandering to find our winning application.

But did not both the ant and the caterpillar know that winter was coming?

I agree that my analogy if flawed in that aspect. Both the creatures knew about the upcoming winter. Even in the real world, one must make an effort to stay updated with opportunities. But how you ask?

1. Research, scrounge and discover — the internet is yours to explore.
2. Private networks — talk to like minded people and try to create a trust system to share knowledge and information so both gain
3. Get involved in communities and discussions where such opportunities are likely to pop up.

The point is, no one probably cares enough to come and tell you about it personally. I tried that previously and have endured quite some burnouts as a result because it is unstructured and chaotic. Instead, if we try in a more structured format like newsletters, chances of reaching to the people who care are better.

But how do we reach the oblivious ones? They might be interested but are unaware of how to begin? Well, let them fail applying.

Yes. This might sound harsh but some of the best realizations happen when you fail in applying for opportunity X. They might have applied in the last minute when they heard about it but that is alright because:

1. The failure will make them realize the importance of pro-actively looking out for opportunities in the future.
2. The same opportunity is bound to return in a similar format in the future, by the same organization or a different one.

Speaking from personal experience, being rejected for the Venkat Panchapakesan scholarship made me think about the person in whose memory google keeps the scholarship. He loved technology and made a conscious effort to help those around him to improve. I realized that what the scholarship is looking is to reward those who are following a similar path. Since I applied for it towards the end, it was not well structured.

So after that rejection, I decided to put in the effort to actually live a life that would put a smile on Mr.Venkat. I personally spoke to students, helped them understand how to overcome their problems and encourage them to grow further. I created a safe space for students and make a conscious effort to ensure no one felt left behind in this supposed race. I have realized what a meaningful life it is to help others near-impartially and this change in my personality has brought about quite a number of positive output as a result.

I plan to apply for the same scholarship this year and I am sure I am in a better condition than my last failure. Even if I do not make it through this final time, I have changed as a person and I am grateful to Google for the same.

Doors will stay invisible to the ones who do not actively look. If you miss a door once, remember where it was and when it opens to be better prepared to apply next time. To summarize. avoid the red line and try to get through the green line in the future if you want to walk through those doors of opportunity victoriously. Anticipate when the doors open based on yours and others experience.

Make every attempt count. In time, you will be remembered as the door opener

If you found this useful and would like to be updated with opportunities from my end, feel free to go through my journal entries and tweets. Take care!