“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen!” — Michael Jordan
Successful people don’t wait for the opportunity to knock and Sir Li Ka-Shing is a living example of it.
Born in the Guangdong province of China was little Li Ka-Shing. Before he turned 15, his father passed away and he had to drop out of school in order to support his family. He began to work at a plastics trading company where he labored for over 16 hours a day. In 1950, after comprehending several aspects of a business and being able to understand how to operate a plant, Li founded a plastic manufacturing company, Cheung Kong Industries, in Hong Kong with personal savings and funds borrowed from relatives.
Sir Ka-Shing Li, a business magnate, investor, and philanthropist was termed as the richest person in Asia, with a net worth of USD 31.9 billion, (Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as of April 16, 2014). Forbes ranked him as the second richest person in Asia as of March 2016, with an estimated net worth of USD 27.1 billion.
Currently, Li is the chairman of the board for CK Hutchison Holdings. Also, he is the world’s leading port operator, investor, and developer, and the largest health and beauty retailer in Asia and Europe. Today, Li’s businesses cover almost every facet of life in Hong Kong, from electricity to telecommunications, from real estate to retail, from shipping to the Internet. The Cheung Kong Group operates in more than 55 countries and employs over 260,000 staff worldwide.
Harvard Business School sums his journey through an inspiring article- here’s the glimpse —
“From his humble beginnings in China as a teacher’s son, a refugee, and later as a salesman, Li provides a lesson in integrity and adaptability. Through hard work, and a reputation for remaining true to his internal moral compass, he was able to build a business empire that includes: banking, construction, real estate, plastics, cellular phones, satellite television, cement production, retail outlets (pharmacies and supermarkets), hotels, domestic transportation (sky train), airports, electric power, steel production, ports, and shipping.”
The point of sharing this story with you was to tell you that if life gives you a hard time, which it would every now and then, don’t give up on yourself and that is your secret number six. Not all the successful ideas worked out in the first shot. Believe in yourself and create oceans of opportunities for yourself.
There are no accidents.
This is one of the famous catchphrases of the movie Kung Fu Panda. As short and precise as it is it holds its virtue in every industry whatsoever. “The person who’s in the right place at the right time,” exists everywhere and they are the ones generating massive wealth. They do not play by the virtue of luck. No, they do not. Yet they attain success and they are not hard to find.
As a matter of fact, you might have seen someone who is that person all the time. We all have those people who just happen to walk right into their desired job interview, get selected, and achieve the right promotions on time. It is as if they have some sort of crystal guiding them in the right and progressive direction. They acclaim rewards for their projects and their presentations get nothing but positive remarks with standing ovations from the special guests who showed up to hear them.
Don’t you ever wonder how they actually do it?
Well, one thing is for sure – It’s not their predefined destiny, fate, or a great gene pool. It’s not an accident – there are no accidents. It’s not even the shooting star. People who are consistent at accomplishing success are not the best, most intelligent, or most powerful. They have one single trait in common although and that is perseverance. They know what it takes to make great opportunities happen. And in order to do the same, you have to instill a few attributes within yourself. It will be just a matter of time before people start taking you as the lucky one who gets through every cut.
Knowing is owning.
One of the famous catchphrases of a popular TV show, Sherlock, is knowing is owning. See, the more you know about the market and its people, the more you connect with their needs, and the more you shall earn a profit. It is as simple as that.
Making yourself aware of the industry’s market and the supply and demand mechanism is one of ensuring your high return on investment. In order to accomplish this task, you can surround yourself with people who not only know the market but they are born in it. In simple terms, they are called experts.
Because businesses do fail for this very reason, this is exactly what you want to avoid. Their expertise in a specific field will enable you to get a firm hold on the business and it will ensure that you are moving in the right direction. Right guidance is necessary and not only keeps your business development in check but it also ensures your profit maximization.
Always pay attention
There’s no better teacher than your curiosity, value it, and gather the maximum amount of information from all the credible sources available. Your environment should be healthy and develop a habit of interacting with it.
Have brainstorming sessions with your colleagues, share ideas, and stay on point with every game there is. Notice little things that happen around you, for they can cast an enormous impact sometime in the future. People who are keen observers and pay attention to things know more than people who do not.
Notice the kind of preparation and responses people value, in other words, stay updated with ongoing trends. It is only when you will be aware of the market demands can you optimize your supply. I have seen people who complain about poor business growth. Well, among many reasons, not paying attention to these things tops the list.
Everyone has their own charm and style, make sure you utilize yours with maximum efficacy. Notice how you can make processes and meetings work better. When you are a business person you have a moral responsibility of making your client happy, the same applies to a service person.
Notice ways that you can add value without taking something away from those around you. Pay attention to your client’s unsaid needs and work on surprising him by giving him what he wants. Notice what makes people’s lives easier, faster, and more meaningful.
Make a habit of paying attention. When you grow as a person and you become a natural resource for all those people who work with you, they will want to be associated with you. Your aura should be so astonishing that it will become natural for them to think of you when new opportunities happen.
Successful people are well aware of the fact that opportunity is always present in some form or another. Closely look for interesting ideas and trends that suit your taste and can be optimized by your skillset. Once hunted down, twist and develop that idea in your own style and make it uniquely yours.
As much as you need to be a critic, make a good habit of looking at things, situations, and people to see how you might improve it. People will acknowledge your presence if you are the one who makes situations more fun, faster, cooler, friendlier, easier, quieter, more musical, lighter, more romantic, more exciting, more inviting, more anything rather than negative and depressing.
Cash in every opportunity that will prove to be beneficial for your company, society, and community as a whole and the people will support you henceforth, as a matter of fact, they will gladly embrace your offer to take advantage of an opportunity.
Be fairly optimistic but never optimally biased
In the finance industry, optimal bias is a popular term used to describe overconfidence of a particular kind. If you are optimally biased then you start taking every situation and every deal for granted. When you do so, not only will you miss opportunities but also terribly fail at creating new ones for yourself.
A successful business person will always measure a scenario with his utmost sense of rationality. He will not only optimize his strength but also with a practical approach he will acknowledge and empower his weaknesses.
We discussed overconfidence. Let us now eliminate the over factor. Because confidence in a common man can single-handedly empower him to move mountains. Three out of every four startups fail, says a survey. For a person with a typically constrained mindset, these kinds of stats are horribly terrifying. But people who believe in themselves are not shaken a bit, in fact, those uninviting, outlook numbers never dissuade the spirit of a true business person.
If you have seen growth in your business, always consider failure as an opportunity to start another million-dollar idea. For instance, the above-mentioned data in the preceding paragraph saying the failure rate is 75 percent, take it as three tries in businesses before I start a successful one.
When I say that build your own door, what I imply is, never ever be discouraged by the former doors where you faced rejections. And the construction of “your door” shouldn’t be based on despair and frustration, rather focus on positive things. Another way to look at it is if there is not an opportunity that is sufficient for you then create your own.