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The hard knocks of opportunity

You have probably never heard of Ron Wayne, but had he not sold his 10 per cent share in Apple Computers one week after it launched, for $1,500, he might now be as famous as his partners Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
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You have probably never heard of Ron Wayne, but had he not sold his 10 per cent share in Apple Computers one week after it launched, for $1,500, he might now be as famous as his partners Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

He could now possibly be worth $40 billion. But he isn't.

Joe Green was Mark Zuckerberg's roommate in college.

Zuckerberg asked Joe if he wanted to help him with his project called Facebook. Joe was talked out of it by his father.

The rest is history. Joe Green's five per cent stake in that business would have been worth $7 billion today. But it isn't.

Diggs was started in 2004 as a news site. By 2007, it had over 235 million annual visitors to the site. In 2008, Kevin Rose, its founder was offered $80 million for the company but turned it down. Instead in 2012, the company was sold for only $500,000 and broken apart.

Rose could have been a millionaire in those days, but he wasn't.

This week, I was at a ski resort getting the last few runs in of the season and I was reminded by my wife that in 2012 I could have bought a condo for $250,000.

Those condos are now worth $600,000. But I didn't.

Opportunity surrounds us and if you are like most entrepreneurs, you may have had chances to invest in projects, or land, businesses or buildings. You might not have had the opportunities of Wayne or Green but perhaps someone once told you about a hot stock tip to invest in, but you didn't.

So what holds us back? Sometimes, it's the money. We don't think we have enough to put into an investment. Other times, like Green, we are talked out of it by family or friends. Many times we don't see the value in the opportunity at the time or think that the timing is not right and we will have a better chance later. Most times we think that the risk is too high so we don't get involved.

Failure to take a chance on an opportunity doesn't happen just in our business lives either. Think about all the opportunities we have had to make new friends. To take a trip, to get better educated, to fall in love, to spend more time with friends or family, to live on the edge a little, but we didn't.

We can't spend our lives regretting the decisions we made, crying over spilled milk or lost opportunities. Ultimately no one else cares about how much money we have or how many investments we have if we aren't nice people. It's true that often in our society we look up to people who have riches or have made something from nothing, but why should we be envious of them?

Do you really think that an extra million or even billion dollars is going to make your life that much better? Chances are that if you are not happy now, no amount of money is going to make you happier. If you think about it, you probably know of some people that have "lots" of money but are miserable. It's not the money that makes us happy.

Yes, more money can reduce your stress levels and I write in my book Profit Yourself Healthy how we need money to do exactly that. We need money to pay our bills, keep the banker off our back and hire people to do jobs that reduce our stress levels.

So why do we kick ourselves because we missed out on an opportunity? If we were to invest in every opportunity that was presented to us, there is a good chance we would be broke. Most opportunities, investments, and "hot stock tips" end up losing money. In fact, 50 per cent of all businesses fail after a couple years.

I believe that if we look at opportunities with an open mind, investigate them as we should, and follow our gut instinct, whether it be in business, or friendships, or chances to improve ourselves, we will make the right decisions.

We are not going to get it right every time. We will bet on some lame horses and make some bad investments as I have and I suspect you may have as well.

However, I do know that every day the sun comes up and there will be another opportunity for each of us to make a difference, and to take a chance to make our world a better place.

Opportunity continues to knock.

Dave Fuller, MBA, is a certified professional business coach and the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy. Take the opportunity to email Fuller what you think dave@profityourselfhealthy.com.