Opportunities

The other day I was at a train station waiting for my train to arrive. There was a man who got down from another train with almost quarter filled water bottle. He looked around to find the water supply to get bottle filled, and finally figured it was very near to where I was waiting.

Since he got down from the train, he was in a rush, he ran to the water tap, immediately threw the water inside the bottle to waste, and turned on the tap to fill it with fresh water.

At this point, there was shock, there was no water coming form the tap, he tried the next one and same story. This happened with 2-3 more taps and suddenly the train whistled, a signal for time to go. So he had to run again and got into the train, this time with empty bottle. The water he had left was also gone now.

I am sure he found water further in his journey, but this made me think.

At times we look at a possibility and completely forget what we might be giving up in pursuing that possibility in life. We simply end up ignoring what we have, without even being sure about what is being offered.

Think, when you left family home to go watch a movie which was completely waste of time, the job in hand that you left just thinking about some amazing startup idea, a lucrative investment opportunity that you put in your life savings only to lose it. You get the idea.

In this world where risk taking is glorified, and being cautious is becoming a synonym with old, dull and almost boring, we are constantly under pressure to treat almost everything as once in a life time opportunity and grab it, no time to contemplate, its always now or never.

However if you really notice, it is rarely so. We always have time to think properly, analyse our options and take a more informed decision in our lives. Most of the so called once in a life time opportunities aren’t so. They are more available than not, in fact whatever comes with such a qualification, one must be very careful in pursuing such endeavours.

There is a cost of every opportunity one pursues, be aware you aren’t throwing away the precious water in your hand only to remain thirsty later.