What does opportunity look like?

And why is it so hard to recognize it at your life party?

Jul 25, 2022

Don’t like reading? Allow me to read it to you 👈

“The food was good, but the caviar only came around once.”1

I have looked hard into the face of it. Examined the crow’s feet at its corners, the freckles on its cheeks, and the brightness of its eyes stalking the room. I have regarded the texture of its skin and the timbre of its voice in cavernous rooms. Watched curiously as others reached out blindly to it, amazed at their unfettered innocence. I have registered its suspicious slogans, marveling as it tears notes from fresh manifestos to confetti around the room and still, I have kept my distance. Are you for real? Are you the one?

I have walked away.

I have sniffed at the tray of its delights as they are held out to me, plated upon shiny discs and tilted worlds. Scanned the showcase of the potential of its flavors and temptations. A quick fix. A sure thing to tamp down my hunger. These are the thoughts of a contemplating mind. Is it fresh? Have others touched it? I quash the desire to stick a finger in the goo of it, to feel for slime or authenticity. Snap the cracker of its contract. Are you legit? Are you going to make my guts explode and my brain race at 2 AM?

I have held up a hand to pass.

I have startled at its grand entrances, materializing as it does at the tops of staircases as though dropped from a passing “Oh, What Luck!” cab. I have swiveled my head in its direction, gasping at the finery of its coat and the dazzle of its crowd work. I have turned to friends who fail to notice its presence and whispered to myself: “Am I the only one who sees it?” I have watched it touch the forearms and shoulders of folks as it slides by with velveteen ease and held up my glass to observe the refraction of its passing. I have declared it phony.

I have wandered off to another room.

Opportunity looks, feels, and acts in many confusing and non-specific ways. Many times—more than I care to count—I have failed to meet, greet, and engage with it honestly. It’s hard to recognize, even harder to act upon. There needs to be an app. Just hold up your phone to scan it like that strange plant in your garden. Weed or wonder? Opportunity or time waster? If opportunity really does knock, how are you supposed to determine if you should open the door? Audio sound-wave analysis?

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

The judgment can only come from the engagement.

The judgment can only come from the engagement who?

I’m an opportunity vampire, you must invite me in.

I thought this was a joke?

Joke’s on you if you don’t invite me in.

This app is broken…

There are a bunch of sayings about opportunity. Success is where preparation and opportunity meet. In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity. Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity. You’ll see these quotes—or hybridizations of them—attributed to different people, but Mr. Marshall Mathers III perhaps puts it best:

You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime
You better

You better is right. You better scoop that caviar into your suspicious gob the first time it comes around, on the off-chance that it will never come around again. Let the beads of that opportunity roll gloriously around in your mouth like rich forbidden pearls. Let the buttery texture of it dance upon your tongue, smooth and lascivious. Seize it, swallow it, just to see how it tastes, but always take that shot at the caviar. Because what if, as Eminem implies, the opportunity only comes around once? You can’t stand there waiting for another day, another time, another crack at the cracker.

“The food was good, but the caviar only came around once.”

It’s just a throwaway line in Andy Warhol’s diary about a party he went to, and even though it would make a great one, don’t let it be your epitaph. Try this one instead.

You better.2