Recognizing Opportunities

We are given opportunities every day but we don't always recognize them as such. That happened to me yesterday. A friend who is a member of a Kiwanis club called me about 6 PM and asked if I would be the speaker for his club the following morning at their breakfast meeting at 7 AM. He had been traveling and forgot he was supposed to secure a speaker.

My immediate response was "No, I can't do that! It's such short notice and what will I talk about?" His response, "Talk about yourself. But you are free to say no". I said no and hung up. After hanging up I thought, this could be a change to talk about my experiences and promote my book. I called him back and told him I would do it. I pulled together information from a previous speech and prepared a 15-minute presentation. It was a wonderful experience. Feedback was very positive.I saw people I knew, people who knew some of the same people that I knew and met new people. I was told they would invite me back to do a book signing after my book comes out in Jan. Next time I'll try to see the opportunity before giving a hasty answer. A new group of people heard me speak which could lead to other engagements.