Being Bold - How to Create Your Own Opportunities

The overriding theme of my signature live motivational presentation, and my memoir, titled, "Believe to Achieve - The Power of Perseverance," focuses on perseverance, of course, but an equally prescient lesson is also prevelant: The importance of being bold to create your own opportunities. While there are some among us who seem to have opportunities simply fall into their lap, the "rest of us" have to be able to recognize a crack in the "Window of Opportunity," and more importantly, boldly climb through it in order to capitalize on it.

During my lifetime, which has spanned more than six decades, I have been blessed to recognize even a small crack in that widow on many occasions and had the requisite desire and willingness to climb through it to achieve success.

The very first time I remember this happening was when I was very young. Having been born without a left hand I learned pretty early in life that I was different than other kids in my neighborhood. Frankly, some of the kids made sure that I knew I was different. For any of you who believe bullying is a new phenomenon, let me dispell that notion right here. Anyway, I also knew that I had a conscious choice to make: I could either sit in the corner of my room and feel sorry for myself, or I could simply go out and do whatever I really wanted to do. I chose wisely. That was truly a window of opportunity and I seized upon it.

Now let's explore some other examples:

High School Varsity Football - A bolder example came when I was a senior at Long Beach Woodrow Wilson High School in Southern California. I had set a major goal upon entering high school to play varsity football by the time I was a senior.

By playing five years of Little League Baseball as a first baseman, pitcher and then center fielder I had gained tremendous self confidence and began building my self-esteem because I competed with all my two-handed friends on an equal footing. In fact, although my fielding was above average, it was my hitting ability that garnered me the most positive accolades from my family and friends. When I was 11 years old my batting average was over .400. When I was 12 it nearly topped the .500 mark. I get it, this was just Little League, but that kind of batting average is above average for any level of baseball player, especially a one-handed player.

In high school, however, I turned my attention to football. After all, anyone who was anyone was on the varsity football team! I wanted to fit in and be respected, too, so I felt it would help if I played varsity football.

Having never played organized tackle football prior to entering high school, my first experience with high school football was a bit regrettable. Although I worked very hard to prove myself worthy of playing, I didn't get into a real game until the last quarter of the last game of the season. But I didn't give up. Quitting was never an option.

In my junior year I switched from being a lineman to playing fullback. Fortunately for me, one of our junior varsity coaches believed in me enough to allow me to try out for that position. Because I worked so hard in the offseason to prepare myself, and because I worked even harder in practice, I made the junior varsity squad. I started the season at fourth string on the depth chart, but by mid-season I worked my way up to second team. I blocked exceptionally well, carried the ball on mostly short yardage situations, and even scored touchdowns. We went undefeated and won the JV title. This time I had contributed to the team's success while earning many personal accolades in the process.

As a senior, because I had proven myself to the varsity coaches, I achieved my goal of making it onto the varsity team. Although I worked as hard as I possibly could to earn a playing role, that eluded me for several games. But once I got a chance to play I demonstrated that I could compete at a high level, scoring touchdowns and blocking better than the other running backs.

We had been picked by most local pundits in 1967 to finish no higher than third or fourth ... or worse in the Moore League that season. The reason was that we only had two returning lettermen from the previous year's team. The rest of us had only played JV football. No superstars at all. However, our varsity coaches knew that we had played very well the year before, winning the JV title as a cohesive team. They decided to keep things simple and rely on repetition to help us play well at the varsity level.

Despite the low expectations of the pundits, we found ourselves going into the last game of the season with the potential of becoming Moore League Champions if we defeated or tied Lakewood High School, who was heavily favored to win. Over 17,000 fans were at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach to witness the championship game. It was to be the most important contest we had ever been in.

I didn't start the game at fullback, but played some in the first half. When we went to the locker room at the close of the second quarter, we were down by seven points. While our head coach Owen Dixon gave us his best interpretation of a Vince Lombardi halftime speech, I realized this was very likely the last game of my senior season and I wanted to play as much as I could to contribute to our team's effort. Suddenly I got a flash of inspiration. I remembered that our coaches had always told us that if we were in the game and the quarter ended, we were to stay in the game, even if we hadn't started the game. 

So I said to myself, "Hey... you were in at the end of the first half, which was the second quarter. You should be in the game when the third quarter/second half begins!"

As our offense began to take the field at the beginning of the second half I ran out and tapped my teammate who had started the game at fullback on his shoulder and said, "Rex, you're out, I'm in." He looked at me strangely, but turned around and headed for the sidelines. Several plays later one of my teammates would later tell me that our offensive coordinatior, Skip Rowland, asked no one in particular, but loudly, "What's Effinger doing out there?" A millisecond later, Owen Dixon growled just as loudly, "Leave him in there!"

Because I was playing the game of my life and performing well, I played the entire second half at fullback, even having a fourteen-yard run and picking up several first downs. The bottom line to this story is that we ended up tying Lakewood and became Moore League Champions! It was truly a Cinderella Season for us. I not only achieved my major goal of playing varsity football, I had been bold and created the opportunity to stay in the rest of the game and contribute to our winning the league title. What a great experience and valuable lesson! After the season I was named Most Inspirational Senior Player, given the school's first ever "Courage Award," and the Long Beach Century Club named me the Most Courageous Football Player of the Decade.

Incidentally, there is much more "boldness" described in my book with respect to how I created even more lofty opportunities for myself with respect to football. The most notable of which was in 1974 when I set out to prove that through hard work, determination and perseverance you can achieve greater success than anyone may believe is possible. This major goal was to play semi-pro football and earn a tryout with an NFL team, despite my limited football experience. Very interesting reading, if I do say so myself.

S&S Construction Company - In 1976 I was hired to serve as an assistant purchasing agent for S&S Construction Company, one of California's most successful new home development companies. They were headquartered in Beverly Hills. The job itself was fairly rewarding, but the "person" to whom I reported was deplorable, to be kind. I stayed in the position for just shy of a year, but longed all the while to find a better position that offered the chance of promotion.

While performing my duties to the best of my ability, but constantly feeling the wrath of you know who, I started asking myself how I had seized the moment and boldly created my own opportunities before, including my football experiences? Then it dawned on me: I needed to again be bold and create my own opportunity once again if I was to bust out of what I considered to be a stifling situation.

A few days later I was reading a copy of Builder Magazine. The cover story talked about how our company's major competitors were building lines of moderately priced homes to attract more buyers. Now, S&S Construction Company was seen as the "Cadillac" of new home builders. Our homes were far from moderately priced. I certainly couldn't afford to buy one. Then... again! A flash of inspiration. I decided to take the initiative and write a memo to our company's Chairman and CEO, Nathan Shapell, that basically called into question our seeming indifference to entering the moderately priced housing market.

My feeling was that either Mr. Shapell would appreciate my initiative and perspective, or he would not be amused. Either way I would get his attention. Making things a little more dicey, I had not as yet taught myself how to type and certainly had no one available to type it for me, so I hand wrote the memo (within a $300 million company... no small amount in 1976). I was relying on the content, not the format, to score points.

I delivered my memo to Mr. Shapell's office on a Friday. The very next Monday he called me up to his office and said he apreciated my thoughts, although he was skeptical that our firm should enter this particular space within the housing industry. I made a few remarks and he then said that I should take two weeks off from my current job to conduct a market survey to determine the viability of our entering that space. Of course, I was delighted to be given this assignment... despite not really having a clue how to conduct such a survey. I finally figured out how to do this and got started right away.

I visited countless new home communities and interviewed the sales staff. I went to city and county planning departments to find out what types of housing had been approved. I did every kind of research I could think of pre-Google in order to formulate my report.

Upon completion of my market survey I hand wrote my findings in a report that I delivered to Mr. Shapell's office on time, as promised. It was a Friday. The following Monday he called me into his office and said,"Young man, while I don't agree with everything you wrote, I admire the effort and commitment you made to follow through." He then floored me by adding, "I want you to leave the purchasing department and become our Director of Market Research." A promotion and a raise! Just what I had hoped for as I crawled through the crack in the window of oppportunity to create my own opportunity.

Less than two years later I created another opportunity for myself at S&S by becoming the Director of Advertising and Public Relations without having had experience or a formal education with regard to either discipline. But that's all covered in my book (naturally).

Great Western Bank - In 1993 I was hired to be a marketing consultant to the REO (Real Estate Owned) department of Great Western Bank. For those not familiar with the term "REO" it is foreclosures. Unfortunately, we are all familiar with that term. At the time I was also providing marketing communications services on a consulting basis to 110 ERA Real Estate Franchises throughout Southern California. To be honest, back then the only thing I knew about REO was how to spell it. Oh, I knew it was foreclosed properties, but I knew nothing of the process for foreclosing, preserving, marketing, or selling such properties. But the economy was so bad at that time that it seemed to make sense to be involved in this aspect of the housing market.

When I was interviewed by the Default Manager at Great Western Bank he said he wasn't sure if the REO situation would last six month, a year or whatever. Eventually, I was involved in that industry for over 23 years.

Anyway, I took on this assignment and began to learn the business process. I got so wrapped up in it that I felt that I could no longer serve the needs of the ERA Francises as well as Great Western Bank, so I terminated my association with them. This was an exciting adventure. But it almost came to an end less than a year later as the bank had to go through a "downsizing" initiative. Their cost per loan was out of sinc with the marketplace and executive managers feared a hostile takeover. A "downsizing" initiative is just what it sounds like - layoffs. Many layoffs.

Now, I was just hitting my stride and thought, "Crap... consultants are usually the first to go!" So I again thought back about how I turned lemons to lemonade and created my own opportunities. The answer came to me in a flash of inspiration (seriously). What if this downsizing initiative is really a crack in the window of opportunity? Of course it was. I decided to approach the REO Manager and tell him that it was obvious with all the layoffs that he was going to get even busier than he already was. That he would not only be working late into the night, but would be taking work home on the weekends, as well. I told him he needed an assistant... and that I wanted to be that assistant.

I had only intended to plant a seed with the REO Manager to let him know that I could be of help to him at some point, possibly in a few weeks or a couple of months as layoffs continued unabated. To my pleasant surprise he came back to me the next day and said that he and his superiors loved the idea. In the midst of a major layoff, I was hired on as an employee that would be the assistant to the REO Manager! What better place to be to continune learning the entire process!

When I crreated my own opportunities earlier in my life people would say, "Gee, you're sure lucky to be able to pull that off!" I would respond by saying, "Yes, I'm lucky alright, because luck is where preparedness meets opportunity."

Bingo!

Did I mention that there is much more detail in my book? Yes, and that includes how I acted boldly once again less than two years later and created the opportunity to be promoted to REO Manager for Great Western Bank, which was subsequently acquired by Washington Mutual. I not only survived the acquisition, I thrived in my position for several years to come, only leaving to pursue greater opportunities.

By now I am sure you get my point. I am certainly not the only person who has been bold and created their own opportunities. Far from it. But my personal experiences are demonstrative of what is possible. You too can accomplish great things. Just keep an eye out for the crack in the window of opportunity... and act on it!

There are more experiences like these that I share in my book, "Believe to Achieve - The Power of Perseverance." For those who are interested, the book is available on Amazon.com. I suggest you search by author's name, as it is the easiest way to locate it.

Thank you for listening! 

Lynn Effinger is the Principal of Effinger Communications, which is the company through which he promotes his motivational speaking, seminar leadership and content writing services. He is a veteran of nearly four decades in the housing and mortgage servicing industries and the author of his memoir, "Believe to Achieve - The Power of Perseverance."