80% of success is just showing up,
according to Woody Allen. Many actors and entrepreneurs put their fame and
fortune mainly down to being in the right place at the right time. A colleague
recently asked me what I thought was the biggest difficulty in delivering a
teaching programme: it’s people not turning up. That is an immediate and
irrevocable fail.
By not turning up you’ve robbed yourself of
any opportunity to benefit from the event. You’ve missed the meeting at which
you could have contributed a novel idea.
You’ve missed the lecture from which you might have been introduced to a
novel concept. You’ve missed making a
connection with somebody who could have helped your new venture.
Sure, you can email people later on about
your thoughts; you can catch up on the idea from a book; and you can email the
useful contact. But none of these have
the immediacy of ‘right place at the right time’. Nor do they have the genuine
connection that comes from human contact. Staying home is safe; but safety
offers no challenge and no chance for growth.
Only by putting yourself out there – by
attending more than merely the compulsory – will you be able to find
opportunity. Now go to that lecture.
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