Do you look for opportunity?
Is your mind open and ready for it to appear?
If you do, one day something is going to turn up, and you will see great success staring you right in the face. Even if it looks anything but to most other people!
In fact one iconic sports stadium would probably not have existed today if one man didn’t possess such a mindset approach.
Wembley Stadium is the home of the English international football team. It is also the location of the big domestic finals as well as European football cup finals and even the Olympic Games. It is known the world over by football and non football fans alike. But, if it wasn’t for one man’s decision to grab an opportunity, it wouldn’t be there at all.
After WW1 London hosted a British Empire Exhibition. The site included buildings, kiosks, and a new stadium. Arthur Elvin owned a number of the kiosks where he sold tobacco and newspapers to the public. Once the exhibition was over the organisers planned to sell off the buildings or knock them down to clear the ground. This would have included the stadium as it had no clear or real use in the mid 1920’s bar one yearly football match.
Elvin thought otherwise and grasped the opportunity. He set himself up as a demolitions expert to win the contracts to tear most buildings down. But, chiefly this escapade was because he thought the stadium had enormous potential. In 1927 he borrowed money from an investor to buy the stadium for him (worth over £6m in today’s money) but the man killed himself soon after due to his own business debts.
Elvin was undaunted. He persuaded the man’s creditors to allow him to set up a company to buy the stadium which he would manage. He would end up running the company and Wembley for 30 years and retired a very wealthy man by adding greyhound racing and speedway which were held on various days of the week.
History will state he had a vision and took the chance.
But one other world renown business mogul only did the same once others helped him see it.
I (phone) wasn’t convinced.
Could you guess who this mega corporate legend was?
If you said Steve Jobs, you would be right.
Now most people believe that he conceived the whole I-phone himself. It’s the usual myth that never gets checked if true.
Legend has this one wrong because Jobs was adamantly opposed to turning his I-pod creation into a mobile phone. His response was, ‘This is the dumbest idea I have ever heard’. Amazing, huh? He loathed cell phone companies due to their poor signals and bad software and didn’t want his growing computer business to be associated with that market.
His engineers were convinced otherwise and set about convincing him too. They persuaded him (over many months) that as you were putting your I-pod in a pocket, why not add a phone too but with a clever design. Jobs now saw something in this first (who doesn’t like a first?) and gave them the go ahead. Four years later 50% of Apple’s income came from that very I-phone suggestion.
Even though he initially didn’t accept a phone was necessary, he did see the kudos of creating something that held huge potential by combining two popular mediums – music and talk. The power had shifted. The engineers saw that opportunity too, and that’s what great people and/or teams have the ability to do. To see something that just comes out of nowhere as the key to the success they were looking for. To take it to the next level from today and beyond.
Look out for the level.
The big takeaway here is being open and curious about going to the next level. Most people are happy to remain on the one they are on. Someone, somewhere, somehow, has to leap up to that untapped level and encourage others to join them. Like Steve Jobs who has sold over 2.3 billion I-phones to the public who didn’t even know they needed one since it’s launch. Or Albert Elvin who bought something to turn it into something else it wasn’t being used for.
Those that seek and welcome opportunity, see it turn up in their lives at some point. Turn up in mega style. And turn up because they wanted it to. That’s the mindset you need. An opportunity ready mind. A field of dreams type view.
Mindset itself is the opportunity in waiting.
It’s just got to be waiting for that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity one day.
And then pounce on it for all you are worth!
References – ‘The Man Who Saved Wembley’, BBC Sport – football – articles.
Steve Jobs – ‘Think Again’, by Adam Grant.