A Letter from Chris Suarez

YOU ARE YOUR OPPORTUNITY

French doors, sliding doors, double doors, rotating doors, bi-fold doors, barn doors, telescoping doors. There are countless styles and designs and types of doors for your home. It took hours to select the right door and design while recently completing a remodel up at our farm.

But perhaps the most popular door, and one that all of us would choose, is the door to opportunity.

Everybody loves when the door to opportunity opens.  

Many search for years or even their entire life looking for the right door.   

Some go to college and university for a decade to set themselves up to be presented with the right door.  Others may work 60 and 70 hours a week for years on end for the right door to be opened to them.  And then there are those that never seem to find the right door.  They have convinced themselves, or others have convinced them, that the door they are looking for is not for them.  That it isn’t their door.  It isn’t their opportunity.

That need not just be in business.  Somewhere along the journey perhaps you were convinced being healthy wasn’t your door.  Being attractive wasn’t your door.  Being successful wasn’t your door.  Being thin wasn’t your door.  Being wealthy wasn’t your door.  Being happy wasn’t your door.  Being in a relationship wasn’t your door.  

Here is what you need to know.

YOU are YOUR opportunity.  Why?  Because once you were given the gift of life, you are immediately presented with the opportunity of what to do with it.  

There has been endless research completed by brilliant social and behavioral psychologists pointing to the fact that circumstance often controls outcome.  There is no denying that there are socio-economic forces at play.  There are geographic forces at play.  There is even randomness at play.  For many years the environment we “find” ourselves in can have a dramatic impact on our circumstances and thus outcomes.  It may impact or even control the door that we find ourselves in front of or we find ourselves behind.  

But there is equally ample research completed by equally brilliant social and behavioral psychologists pointing to the fact that we can rewrite that script.  We can individually build our own door.  We can affect change on those socio-economic, geographic, and even random forces at play.  You are your opportunity.  The right door may not immediately be “on your street” or “in your neighborhood”.  It may not even exist in your town, state, or country.  But you are your opportunity.  

I have invested in many companies.  Some established, some start-ups.  Some in my field, some outside of my field.  Some local, some international.  And when I do invest in those other companies, I understand there is no guarantee.  I understand that isn’t an “opportunity”.  That is a gamble.  At best, it is a risk.  Why?  Because I am choosing to invest in someone or something other than myself.  That is a choice.  A risk I am willing to take when doing so.  But when you invest in you, you can eliminate all risk.  You give yourself a guarantee.  

Buying stock or receiving stock in a company is a risk or a bonus, but not an opportunity.  A company is not your opportunity.  A door is not your opportunity.  My Robinhood account is not my opportunity.  I am my opportunity. 

You can’t control much in life but you can control you.  Because of this, you control all of your opportunities.

The word “opportunity” showed up in our language in the late 14th century.  It was derived from Old French and has been defined as “a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something; a chance or shot.”  Don’t leave your circumstances up to someone else.  Again, you don’t control all circumstances you may find yourself in.  But the word “opportunity” was originally a maritime term signifying that the wind had changed its direction and started to blow towards the port or harbor.  At that moment, the wind was “favorable” or provided the sailor with an “opportunity” to get to the harbor safely and swiftly.  

But there was still work to do.  Wind doesn’t just blow the sailboat into the harbor.  In fact, whether the wind is “favorable” or not, a trained and focused sailor can harness that wind by tacking and jibing.  Does it take more energy, effort, and work in less favorable circumstances or a difficult environment?  Sure.  Can they still get to port or harbor with or without an opportune wind?  Absolutely.  Why?  Because even though the sailor doesn’t control the wind or the circumstance of the sea that they are sailing in, they are their opportunity.  

At times the door seems to just open, as if the tailwind is just pushing us towards the desired harbor.  At other times, the wind seems against us, striking us with powerful gusts, pelting rain, and choppy seas.  Either way you can control the outcome.  You can arrive at your destination.  

Because YOU are YOUR opportunity.

Chris