The arbitrage in life is being ready.
Look at this from fighting terms. If you need time to get in shape and make weight, you won’t be able to take the short notice fights. If you are on the way up looking for the big contract, a short notice fight could change a life. If you are not in a position to take that fight, you missed another opportunity.
You need to be ready 24/7 for the fights that come your way. If you need time, you miss it and the opportunity goes to another person. Don’t be the fool who thinks it will come around again. How many guys have made it to the Super Bowl and lost, thinking they will be back but never got that chance again. Sure they are happy that they played that 1 game but I guarantee that they wish they did it different.
A customer walks in and you don’t put down your task to address them because you think your task is more important. You have no idea what you just missed and that person may never return.
You don’t answer the phone because you don’t want to be bothered. You don’t know what you missed. You don’t know what opportunity just passed you by.
You don’t feel like going to work, you lose a day and everything it could bring. You lost potential for comfort.
I am not saying to work 24/7 or to burn yourself out. I am saying you need to be ready 24/7 mentally, physically, and technically to take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. When the guy who should can’t and they call you, you have a chance to become the new guy that get the 1st shot. Being ready is your arbitrage.
2 years ago I got a call at 9 pm on a Saturday or Sunday. They needed a heavyweight to go to France and fight a living legend. Karl Roberson, a light heavyweight, said let’s go! We hopped on a plane and flew to France a day later. Now we are sitting in Las Vegas, all because of that one opportunity. The exposure that fight gave us made Karl a known commodity that it would have taken years to become in a matter of days.
Karl has the talent and skill plus puts in a massive amount of work. The key is being ready for opportunity, not just saying yes to things because they may work out. It is being ready to make everything work in your field because you are prepared. You need to be the right person so the opportunities that come your way get you to where you want to go.
Be ready, do the work, take the call, show up for work, put down the task and engage the customer, respect opportunity as if it is never coming to you again because it just might not.
Brian Wright