On a recent Sunday, we attended a college graduation with thousands of other people. At one point, we wanted a cup of coffee. We noticed a food court in the distance, but when we got closer we realized nothing was open. We were puzzled – why wouldn’t they be open on a day with so many potential customers?

 

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It made us think about missed opportunities.
You can’t avoid missing opportunities. What you want to do is make sure you spot all opportunities that will make a material difference in your life. Most of us probably have less than five of these in our lifetime. They are the difference between success and bigg success.

It’s often easier to spot the other person’s missed opportunity than it is our own.
Why? Because we experience the result of the other person’s missed opportunity. We don’t experience our own so we don’t know about.

Most customers won’t tell you when you miss an opportunity. At best, they keep it to themselves. At worst, they tell others.

So one lesson is that when a customer tells you about missing an opportunity, be grateful. They’ve served you well. But most people just keep it to themselves.

2 ways to find out about your missed opportunities

#1 – Ask!
Develop a way to get customer feedback in the heat of the moment. That’s when people are more willing to let you know what you missed out on.

It’s not good enough to just ask. You need a system to track the comments so you can respond to them. More importantly, you need to work them into your system. That’s how you continue to serve your customers better.

This doesn’t just apply to people in business for themselves. Ask your boss how you can do your job better. Ask co-workers to whom you pass on work how you could make their jobs easier.

#2 – Observe!
Our bigg opportunities usually don’t come stamped with OPPORTUNITY written all over them. In fact, they’re often presented to us as a problem – a problem that no one else wants to tackle.

Napoleon Hill, in Think & Grow Rich, told the story of Edwin C. Barnes. Barnes had one goal: to become Thomas Edison’s partner in business. He got a job for Edison working as a sales person.

One day, Barnes learned that Edison had just invented the dictating machine. Edison was excited about this new device. But he had a problem – his sales people didn’t think it would sell. Barnes recognized this as his bigg opportunity. He took on the task of selling Edison’s newest invention. He did sell it … so successfully in fact that Edison made him his partner.

So Edwin Barnes spotted his bigg opportunity. To every else it was just a huge problem; Barnes turned it into bigg success.

Our bigg quote today comes from the great inventor himself, Thomas Edison:

So find your “Ah-ha” in everyone else’s “Ugh”

Next time, we’ll discuss how to find your passion. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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