‘So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the wall of his house. Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’ Matthew 24:37-44
It is an old wisdom that good luck is when preparedness meets opportunity. If you want to get lucky, you must stay ready so that you may tap into any opportunity that may arise.
You cannot first wait for the opportunity and then prepare to grab it. To tap into any opportunity, career or business, you must have prepared for it so that it knocks when you are ready. Some people may be ready, but not alert. The lack of alertness means they are unable to know the opportunities available that they could tap into and win.
Preparedness is not enough. To succeed, you must be alert as well so that your sensors are always scanning for the environment and sniffing for any available opportunities that you are prepared for.
When Government announced the decision of a crude oil pipeline construction-route, some people who were ready with money approached locals living along the proposed pipeline route and bought off their land at cheap prices to tap into high compensation prices by the government during the construction. They made a killing. When the government announced free land in the Namanve industrial area, few entrepreneurs who were ready, applied and got land allocation! By the time the rest of the business people woke up, all the land had been allocated. They met the requirements (ready) but did not know the timing (alert).
Which opportunities have come your way only to realize their existence after they have passed? It is not enough to just prepare. You must stay alert. In many organizations, by the time an advert appears in the papers for any job, a person has already been identified! Those who prepare and wait for the job advert are usually at a disadvantage because the advert could have been skewed in favor of the person who had been alert.
And that is what we learn in Matthew 24:37-44. Don’t get ready, stay ready and alert. No one knows the hour and the time. If you are a traveler, as you wait for the bus setting off to your destination, you must stay ready and alert. Otherwise, if you sleep off, you may wake up when the bus has already left. And if you sleep in the taxi, it could take you past your destination.
May you be blessed with the ability to prepare for any opportunities and be alert to know when they happen so that you may tap into all of them. Happy holidays.
Bernabas Mustapha Mugisa, Mr. Strategy, helps plant the seeds of transformation through team cohesion and a culture of strategy execution. Visit mustaphabm3.sg-host.com to be #transformed.
