I was having a conversation with a friend of mine on Whatsapp and he told me he got a lift (a hike, or something of that sort) from some guy along the road and obviously, they started having conversations and small talks. I’m sure it went like, “hey dude, thanks for the ride.” And probably he was like “its a pleasure man.”
Where do you live? Where are you heading to? what do you do? Boom! Obviously, the guy explains. “I’m a student at Wits, HOWEVER, I run a consulting business aside. Wow!
So the guy he’s a graduate and he’s a consultant. Actually, I think he was from a client maybe who knows. What I’m interested in is that he told my friend that he just recently made 400k, and that is pretty good money.
It shows that there is money in a consulting business and it shows that it’s possible that you can sell your expertise to clients, other businesses, governments, corporations, Non-profit, and profit organizations. Especially when you know what you are doing…
You can be a student in PR, media, Journalism, Sport, business management, Architecture, Mechanical engineering or ecology to name a few, and you can apply the knowledge you have learned and turn it into a business. You can turn your skills into a freelancing profit. That is what I teach and encourage students. Turn your qualification into an entrepreneurial effort. Build a personal brand and start selling. Be an entrepreneur and a salesperson with your expertise.
That is what I’m striving for. I'm not there yet, however that is where I’m heading because I understand that success in other definition is “when an opportunity meets preparation.”
So I was diverting a little bit, let’s go back to this story of my friend…
So the guy tells him that he has even managed to pay his bond for 1/2 years in advance with the proceeds he makes from his consultancy and now he’s currently looking for office space so that he can grow and build his consulting businesses.
So here there story goes...
I then ask my friend; "did you get his contacts?" He says ohh flip
📷
I forgot. He forgot to ask his contact details. How do you? This is an opportunity right in front of your eyes. The guy is in business, he's a young entrepreneur and one thing you could have asked is his contact details. You could have started building a relationship with him.
Then here is the advice I gave him.
And I gave him this advice because we always ask ourselves “What makes a millionaire?” What makes others successful and others not? And last week we were having a conversation on: What is the difference between a broke graduate and a non-graduate multi-millionaire?
I told him that I was about to write a blog post on the topic: "When Preparation meets Opportunity." I explained that "You met a guy you could have learned a lot from with simple conversations on whatsapp"
You could have got hold of his contacts, business card or a twitter handle or whatever that could have made you reach him. And then you start having "simply coffee meet ups"
Tell you the truth. That is where millionaires are made. Through simple conversations with millionaires. You rub shoulders with them, you learn from them and you just listen. THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE. i'm not there yet, but I simply know that it takes this kind of mentality. It takes this kind of mindset. The rightmindset (when preparation meets an opportunity)
That’s the difference between us and millionaires. That’s the difference between those who have graduated and those nongraduate millionaires as we say. How come they don’t even have a matric, yet they are millionaires? We say…
They understand the simplicity of “building contacts.” oh I should say the importance thereof. They understand the power of building relationships and valuable networks. They’ve got nothing to loose mentally and they understand the art of hustling. They are not shy to say…
Hey look at what I’m doing this side, probably we could collab. They not shy to reach out and say “hey I like what you’re doing over there.” They not afraid to say “hey I heard you say you consult, so how did you reach here?” You can teach me two or three, I can learn from you
These are the people, who were by the car wash parking lots or garage and they saw other millionaires and they started asking questions. They understand that success is in mentorship and learning from others. It’s in creating relationships. Check out
I’m good at PR and social media, maybe we can collab. They look into that person and look for ways on how they can solve their challenges. They sell their expertise to them and say “look I studied this field, I’m building this and that.” I think I can contribute to your consulting business. They are able to even volunteer.
I think it was Conor McGregor who once said: “When I say something is going to happen, it’s going to happen.”
However, I strongly believe that his statement is only backed up by his enormous amount of preparation, tireless workout and work ethic mentality.
You can’t say you gonna have something and never prepare for it. Or even work for it to happen. It's impossible. Why? Because success is when preparation meets opportunity.
I was recently listening to Conor McGregor interview with Tony Robbins and he explained how the law of attraction has made him be what he is. However, he kept on preparing himself because he knew where he is heading and capable of. He visualized the kind of life he is living now. And what is interesting is that “he would visualize a screaming arena chanting his name.”
This is a guy who says he has learned to invest a lot more time and money in investing in himself; In this interview, he says he was inspired by a story he read of Lebron James on Forbes, whereby it is said that Lebron invests about $1.5 million — to take care of his body. This money covers costs from his home gym, trainers, massage therapists, chefs, appliances, and more.
Why? Because Lebron, understand in order to succeed in the field. You’ve got to prepare enough. In closing, I think I once heard that Beyonce spends about 8 hours in studio rehearsing. According to TMZ, the pop star was scheduled 11-hours a day for a Coachella performance. I think I’m safe to say that if we could apply the same mentality. The same mindset of relentless preparation, commitment, and continuous dedication in the area of our expertise, so that when opportunity knocks; WE ARE READY!!
Comments