This week in 1836, 200 some odd people made up mostly of farmers, ranchers, smiths, and other ordinary people, stood and looked into the face of death and, with a defiant shout, fought for something bigger than themselves.
These 200 stood their ground for 3 days against the full might of an army who’s goal to crush a rebellion with such a show of force that no one would dare rise against them again. For 3 days they managed to keep a militaristic dictator occupied enough to keep his full force at hand, giving the rest of the rebellion a few more days to prepare. Those 200 changed the course of history.
Why?
Because they chose to.
History is nothing but people taking chances, opening doors, seizing opportunities. What made them history worthy was, in most cases, because they chose to keep themselves open to possibilities.
There was a link I tweeted recently that went to an article discussing a certain study wherein “lucky” and “unlucky” people were given a series of tests to determine what, if anything, made people lucky. When it came down to it, the lucky people were simply more open to opportunity, meaning you make your own luck.
Basically it works like this: unlucky people tended to keep their head down and perform the task at hand, while lucky people kept their eyes open for those opportunities.
In life, opportunity takes many forms. baD kARmA INk is an opportunity for us to get our names out there and to start building an audience. Problem is, it’s only an opportunity if we take advantage of it. The reason I am in the position I’m in at work is because I was open to the opportunities that presented themselves. When extra projects came up, I took them. When problems popped up, I worked on solving them. Effectively, I made the job my own and was rewarded with new work, new positions, and more money.
Problem is, luck requires work. When opportunity pops up, if you don’t take advantage of it, it just becomes another “what if” memory. When history comes knocking, are you going to answer the door?
