Be ready to leap like a hungry lion

It happens in the streets, on planes and trains and automobiles– that clear cut moment that is the window making your fortune.

All you have to do is spot it and take advantage of it with hard work and determination.

Beware. These key moments pass entrepreneurs by all the time. The best of them are ready to admit they missed out.

This weekend Billionaire Tomorrow spoke to multi-millionaire Daniel Sarpong from his home in Accra, Ghana. He told us of a moment on an airline flight from Hong Kong when he sat next to a man who had a new idea that could have made him a fortune. All Sarpong had to do was take a telephone number, before he left the plane,  and it was a slam dunk.

I won’t spoil the rest of the story – you can read it in full on Wednesday in Billionaire Tomorrow – needless to say Sarpong admitted he didn’t listen, nor take a number, and missed out. It strengthened his resolve never to miss an opportunity again.

Sarpong is in good company. The record company Decca turned down the Beatles saying the group had no future in show business.

“Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity,” said author H Jackson Brown Jr.

“if opportunity does not knock, build a door,” said Milton Berle who took his first opportunity as a child actor leading to an 80-year career in acting in films. He lived until he was 94.

In Africa, investors in Nigeria missed a big opportunity when they concluded that mobile phones would never take off in their country because there were so few landlines in operation. They were wrong and the handful of investors who put their money behind mobile operator MTN made a fortune as millions signed up – largely, because there were so few landlines available in Nigeria.

Anyway, welcome to the week. If you see that opportunity before your eyes, jump on it like a hungry lion; gather capital, resources, and expertise, to make it a reality.

Failure to do so could damage your wealth.