– OPPORTUNITY COST.

The young lady was very beautiful, charming respectful and collected. She was an employee at one of the richest and most successful IT firms in Nigeria. She knelt again to say goodbye to her aunt as she hurriedly walked towards her parked brand new official car. She looked so happy, successful and progressive in life. She actually came to drop off her eight months old baby and her nanny at her aunt’s place before heading off to the office.

I saw admiration in the eyes of her aunt as she gazed at her 29 year old niece as she entered the back seat of her official car to be driven to work by her official driver.

He own mother had relocated to the UK 2 years earlier for medical attention and to spend some time with another one of her children. Hence the reason for bringing her baby to her aunt’s place.

As she drove off, the aunt realized I was looking at her and suddenly smiled, she shrugged and then sighed. “Opportunity is important in life”, she professed to me.  “Do you know my daughter was more brilliant than this girl while they were in school?” She continued, “See it now, she is doing very well and my brilliant daughter is a mere primary school mathematics teacher in a small school around the neighborhood. Opportunity is the determinant of fate in this world” she submitted.

I didn’t respond to her, I just smiled and kept my opinion to myself, it didn’t matter anyway, in that state of mind, anything I say contrary to her submission would offend or upset her, not help her. I just bade her farewell as well and went on to my own business.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve heard it before and you might have as well, people often hold lack of opportunity responsible for their less than glowing results in life. We’ve all heard people blame lack of opportunities for the reason why they are struggling and not doing so well in life.

Many believe if they are in certain environments, connected or related to certain people, their dream lives would automatically materialize. In fact some consider opportunity as an occasion that shows up and vanishes never to return into one’s life if missed. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not the complete truth.

What is an opportunity, I define an opportunity as a chance in life to do, create or become something desired.

Opportunity is that chance you need to do something, it’s that chance you need to showcase something, it’s that chance you need to build something, it is that chance you need to create something, it is that chance you need to become something and it’s the chance you need to access something. Opportunity is the willingness and ability to take your chances.

I assume many of us have heard the statement “opportunity comes but once”? This in my opinion is not also the complete truth. Opportunities don’t really come passé, opportunities abound around you and are ever present waiting and begging for you to take them.

Opportunities are like lovely products displayed on a shelf in a supermarket waiting for those with the ability and capacity, to pick them up and pay for them.

Opportunities are sometimes not presented in glorious attractive packages, opportunities are most times situations and problems waiting for solutions with a big and compelling reward for that person with the best solution or answer to the challenges and problems.

If you hence, take a good look around you in Nigeria, you see the very many problems everywhere you turn, if you look around and see many situations and challenges begging for someone who can solve them, it simply means you have more than enough opportunities to become great, relevant and prosperous in this country.

Even with this, opportunities are not readily available for anyone to take on just by wishing or asking, you must pay the price and buy your opportunities.

Opportunities for greatness in life are not taken, they are paid for; they are purchased with something valuable, that’s the meaning of opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the cost of your opportunity. It means the payment or value you’re willing to give up so as to obtain an opportunity you desire.

In this life, you need to buy your opportunity, you need to give up something you value in order to obtain that which you desire, that’s your opportunity cost; the cost of obtaining a chance in life is opportunity cost.

The dictionary describes opportunity cost as the loss of other alternatives when a particular alternative is chosen. This simply are the things you give up to get the things you want. This is the cost of the opportunity.

If you want to advance, progress and achieve anything great in life, you must be willing and ready to give up something for it. Nothing on earth is free. All things are paid for, even gifts are paid for by the giver of the gift, your gift giver didn’t just take it from the gift shop; payment was made. In this life, nothing is really free.

Dear friend, what do you want in this life? What do you truly desire in this life? If other people have what you dream of, it could be an indication they have paid for that opportunity you are unwilling to pay for.

Payment for your opportunities could come in various forms, these could include cash, time, knowledge, capacity, character, exposure or useful relationships. It could be any or all of these.

You want to be outstanding at work, you want rapid promotion, you want to rise faster than your contemporaries but you’re unwilling to use your own cash to pay for courses and programs and trainings that will build your capacity, ability and knowledge for superiority? You’re perhaps waiting for your employer to pay for all the training you need, dear friend, this can’t give you the advantage you need over your contemporaries; you’re wasting your opportunities.

You want to transit from paid-employment to self-employment, or you’re about to retire to start running your own business but you’re unwilling to spend money and invest time on weekends perhaps, to attend institutions and business academies that will guide you and help you with the right approach to building a successful business in Nigeria, you want to relax and probably watch football or TV series and enjoy your weekends. Dear friend, you’re not taking your chances. If consequently, those who made the sacrifice begin to do much better than you, you claim they are lucky or have the opportunity, dear friend, you have the same opportunity; you’re just not taking them.

The ability to stay awake and study hard all night long for a season in order to pass a critical exam is the cost of that opportunity to work with a world class company and be paid millions per month. If you refuse to pay this price hence cant gain the employment and the salary it pays, don’t blame it on lack of opportunity. The opportunity was there but you were unwilling to pay the required price for it.

If instead of investing your cash in personal development, skill acquisition, intellectual growth, courses, programs and associations that will improve you and keep you relevant now and in future, you prefer to spend on designer clothes, gadgets, phones, cars, excess pleasure and leisure, don’t lament if the opportunity for relevance and a great future eludes you, you simply didn’t pay for it.

If you’re quite spiritual and not just religious, you’d realize the answers to your prayers and the blessings of God are delivered in packages of opportunities, not finished products.

Dear friend, that opportunity for you to be and become anything you want in life is right by your side, what are you ready to give as the price for that opportunity you want? Money, time, study, training or personal development? What is that opportunity asking for?

What are you willing to give up in order to apprehend your opportunity for greatness and achievements?  Dear friend, it’s time to give up empty friendships, excess TV, clubbing, social media addiction, too much sleep, too much leisure, pleasure and empty gist as the cost for more valuable things in life.

If you don’t pay the price for your opportunities, don’t judge or criticize or explain away the success of others who dared to pay the price as sheer luck.

Dear friend, you really don’t have all the time, another year is fast running out, how well have you grown this year? What have you accomplished, achieved or gained this year, or you’re still in the business of blaming and condemning and holding others responsible for your own responsibilities?

Dear friend, its time you go after every opportunity you want and buy it. What is the cost of that opportunity? Pay it. Earn it legitimately.