Written by: Vickie Sullivan | July 14, 2015
How Opportunities Come To You
I met Janet Walkow at Harvard a while back. We clicked immediately over a funny story at the coffee station. When she told me about all her projects and passions, I just knew we had to join forces.
You see, Janet had so much going for her that she couldn’t explain her impact in a clear and concise way. Result: people loved her but they didn’t know what to do with her.
For years I’ve called this the curse of brilliance. Successful people are usually good at so many things that it’s hard to: 1) choose among equal passions; and, 2) see the commonality in the midst of divergent projects. This is the biggest reason why the sharpest knife can’t carve its own handle. We just can’t see the forest for the trees.
After some digging, we found the underlying theme of her work. How we did it: we looked at her “eureka moments” — those times when one decision changed everything. In that split-second, we can see the path open up before us. When we see the path, we can see our role. When we see our role, we can clearly explain who we are and what we stand for. The result for Janet: invitations to speak at a top-five business school, at a TEDx event, and more cool projects both within and outside of academia.
It felt like opportunities just fell out of the sky. What really happened: people understood how to use her brilliance. (And her warm and engaging personality sealed the deals.)
Opportunities don’t require us to be perfectly “ready”. Janet’s story proves that hidden opportunities come to us when we pave the way with clarity. Click here to hear her story about our work.
Other Resources You Might Like:
- The Best Branding Stories Do This One Thing Differently
- Why Great Opportunities Slip Away
- Strategic Sounding Boards