661. Don’t run after Opportunity when it knocks door be vigilant!

http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-blogs/seekers/self-improvement/dont-run-after-opportunity-when-it-knocks-door-be-vigilant

Opportunities are never to be chased but you have to grab them as they approach you. Every opportunity looks bigger going than coming and it comes in a turtle pace, if you fail to grab it then it disappear in rabbit speed. No one ever will know if it was the best opportunity that he had missed before he has literally missed it. The only reason to have missed it is that he was not vigilant.

A young man had tried his hand in almost every business but had recurred losses. He was fed up and finally went to a Sadhu. He asked him the reason behind the failure. The Sadhu told him, “Go to the river bed tomorrow and bring a red round pebble I will tell you why you have failed.”

The young man as told went to the river and started searching for the pebble from the river bed. There were many white, grey, black and brown pebbles; he started looking for the red one. Every time he picked the white or brown one he threw them back into the river as he did not want to pick up the same pebble again. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was red. Yet he did not give up he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble finding it not to be a red one and throwing it into the river. The whole day he could not fine a red pebble and he went home evening as it was getting dark.

The next day he looked again but could not find the red pebble this routine stretched into weeks and the weeks into months. One day, however, around mid-afternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was red. Before he could realize he had hurled the pebble into the river. He had formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the river that when the one he wanted came along, he just threw it away. Cursing himself for what he had done, he went to the Sadhu and told him what had happened.

Sadhu said, “So it was an opportunity missed. You were so casual when the red pebble was in your hand you were not vigilant enough to recognize it even when your goal was to find a red pebble. I can only say that unless you have the wisdom to recognize an opportunity that come your way you will never find success. And further, I wish for you that in future you are vigilant to grab the opportunity that comes your way.”

“Opportunity is often difficult to recognize; we usually expect it to beckon us with beepers and billboards.” William Arthur Ward.