“The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive.
The great opportunity is where you are.” – John Burroughs
One thing that I have discovered about leaders of every kind is that they are constantly looking for a great opportunity. This may be an opportunity for their family, for their business, or for their church. It may be an opportunity with the potential to help a community or even change the way that people look at the world. Often these opportunities are overlooked until someone with the heart and mind of a leader begins to understand their great potential.
And this is why these men and women lead. They are able to see what can be instead of what is. They look at an opportunity and begin to imagine what it can become when fully developed. They have vision.
The challenge to people of vision however is that they often see the possibilities and potential in everything but their own situation. As John Burroughs so clearly stated in the quote above, they are drawn to the far off challenges while overlooking the great opportunity in front of them. And so they quit, or leave, or fail simply because they are deceived into believing what is out there will have a bigger payoff then what is right here.
Sometimes it is necessary to quit. Sometimes leaving is the best option and, truthfully, every attempt at success carries with it the possibility of failure. Opportunity becomes a reality, though, when the visionary leader is committed to following through.
Before moving on to the “distant and difficult”, perhaps it is time to dig in and realize the opportunity “where you are” because that may be the greatest opportunity of your life.