We can wait for opportunities to come to us or create a pathway of connections, skills, planning to get to them faster and more efficiently than others.

Works for getting the best jobs, best deals, and best clients.

To create these opportunities just decide what you want, then think of what is the usual path to that thing, and then how some other people have gotten to those places in unusual places.

For example, to get your dream job, identify 10-20 places where your dream job exists i.e. there is someone already doing what you want to do. Then cultivate your network in each of these companies over 3-12 months, and whenever a role opens up, go via that network. If you have a good network, then chances are that you’ll hear about the role before all external candidates, so you’ll have the chance of the first attack.

Or be open to random opportunities, act fast and decisively.

This is how Ryan Graves did it. He replied to a tweet by Uber founder Travis Kalanick.

He didn’t stop at that. He signed up new partners for Uber, even before he had the job. Now, who do you think got the job – someone with an impeccable resume and a shiny cover or Ryan who did the job, without getting the job.

Travis shared a bit about it in a blog post that he wrote about Uber’s founding later.

Anyway, thanks to Ryan’s reply to that tweet, his hustle, he became Uber’s first employee. And thanks to his equity, at 35 he became a billionaire.

One can use the same approach while building a client-focused business. If you are building one, you can use the traditional approach of hunting for opportunities via different channels with varied success or you can use a creative approach like getting on 1-2 podcasts every month where you know your prospective buyers hang out. That way opportunities will come to you.

Now think, how can you apply this in other areas of your life?