Missed Opportunity Through Lack of Planning?

Have you missed an opportunity?  Recently I did and big time to!  I was busy preparing for a client meeting when the phone rang.  I was on a tight schedule and pushing to get myself out the door so as not to be late.  Just as I was about to leave the phone rang and I quickly picked it up to find a journalist on the other end of the phone wanting me to comment on a pertinent topic of the day.  I was so pushed for time my reply simply was “I am sorry, I don’t feel comfortable commenting on this subject at this point in time”.  End of conversation!

Uuugh! I still play this conversation out in my mind.  This was a perfect opportunity for me to gain more exposure for my business, build credibility and build a relationship with the journalist.

 What’s done is done, I can’t change what happened.  From this there has been a truly big learning for me – keep your eye out for opportunity and have a plan for when it rises, you never know when it will happen.

Now I have a plan in place, I have created a plan of action should this situation arise again.  I thought through what I could have done better, what I could have said and how I could have filled both obligations on the day.

I know this sounds really basic stuff, however, you would be surprised at how many times we can let opportunities slip through our fingers because we don’t have a plan, we don’t think things through logically and we don’t act!  Having a strategic plan in place and most importantly putting some action to the plan can help to build on those opportunities. 

For me now, I visualize the phone ringing and the journalist is on the other end giving me a second chance to prove my value.

Have you let an opportunity pass you by because you weren’t prepared for action?