Robin Sharma is a well-known Management Consultant. He is also a popular writer. He gained a lot of popularity through his book “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”. For me personally, however, his best books are GREATNESS GUIDE – 1 and 2. They contain quite many tips and suggestions for self-development and self-improvement.  The books are well written and are easy to read. Together, the books contain 202 chapters that are, on average,  less than two pages long each.

In this article, I am focusing on a chapter related to “Opportunities”. The chapter is named “Harvey Keitel and Windows of Opportunities”. The Chapter is triggered by an experience of Robin Sharma that he regrets. Harvey Keitel was a Hollywood celebrity who once happened to be sitting a few yards away in a hotel lounge. Sharma laments that he didn’t have the presence of mind to walk up to him and make friends with him. That was a lesson in his life for Robin Sharma. He has a precious message for all. It is

Each day, life will send you little windows of opportunity. 

Your destiny will ultimately be defined by 

how you respond to these windows of opportunity. 

The message is loud and clear. It is the same as saying that a bank cheque is delivered in your mailbox every day. To make the best of you have to go to the right bank for encashment. All of us have gone through such experiences. We often wonder “if only I had done so ….”. The English proverb “make hay while the sun shines” conveys something similar to us. It is important to bear in mind that the sun may not shine tomorrow.

We may recall something that happened in Indian politics more than thirty years ago. There was political instability at the center. Jyoti Basu was approached by a few leaders to become the Prime Minister. He declined. An opportunity came his way to lead the nation, but he did not respond positively. Some time later, Basu confessed that it was his “historic blunder”.

We come across the phrase “missed opportunity” frequently and in different contexts. Quite often, a team loses a cricket match from positions of strength and dominance due to wrong strategy or poor play. In such cases, it is said that it was a game of lost opportunities.

Finally, I will touch upon the corporate world. Whenever a new project is taken up or envisaged, the managers are required to carry out a SWOT analysis. SWOT is an acronym denoting Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. The leadership team needs to be aware of the opportunities that may come during the execution well in advance to ensure readiness or preparedness.