It is sad how this image's true meaning is missed by many here. Opportunity is not simply meant as "Hard work always makes opportunity" too many of you fail to recognize the actual meaning and have already decided that there is no opportunity because no one handed you an envelope with the solution inside.

I am fully convinced that half of the people who bitch and moan about their lives actually want to be miserable and blame others. The other half want to be successful but are so inundated by the negative other half that they cannot overcome it.

If we go together to a flea market and we see an old computer and it's being sold for $5.00, you may look at it as a piece of junk, I look at it as a $5.00 investment that can instantly double my money on ebay/craigslist just by writing a listing, boxing it up and going to the post office. Or with a little polish and hard work scavenging some parts, that $5.00 turns into $100.00 (or more). You think, dude why bother.. it's 5 bucks! The difference between us is how we look at things and their "worth" to us in terms of our effort and time.

Some of you see $5.00 as "not worth your time" then you proceed to log onto reddit when you get home from your job and bitch about your employer not paying you more than you agreed to when you started working there. That 30 minutes browsing and posting could have been spent cleaning and fixing that computer. If you made 5.00 on that computer, what else at the flea market can make you money in the time you usually spend browsing reddit or generally bitching about life in front of the latest episode of Game of Thrones? Too many of us have a very inflated sense of self worth. Your time isn't worth anything if you are not generating revenue for yourself. You have already capped your personal worth at zero.

If a neighbor offered you 20.00 to mow their lawn, would you do it?

Some would and be 20.00 richer.

Some would not because it's not worth their time or it's beneath them and not gain anything. (some would even call the neighbor names for not offering more)

Some would start thinking if other neighbors want their lawn mowed.

Which one are you? Who do you think see's and seizes the opportunity?

That computer in my fictional anecdote represents work and opportunity. It's a bit of work to get the computer resold and it's an opportunity to create a business. It can be anything at all.

Many of us sit at our cubicle jobs and get all pissy that management hasn't selected you the next CEO because obviously you are the star employee.

I am reading quite a few "but my boss doesn't recognize" blah blah. Not every opportunity you see is offered by an employer and that's not what this image is about. Every one here seems to be an excellent/perfect worker and yet here we are (US time) during the work day on reddit replying to a comic.. so you have to ask yourself, how hard are you actually working? is part of your job browsing the www, I think not. So by definition everyone who has a 9-5 in the USA and is at that job right now replying to this post is, at least for a short while, not focused on their job. That says a lot about you and your state of mind. I would bet that many of you think you have worked hard enough and browsing reddit is just no big deal... "my boss/workmate does it!"

But say it's your day off...the other examples of how great some of you are are almost comical...

Meeting your particular quota in your cubical job is not "hard work".

Doing the job you were given to do is not "hard work".

Showing up on time not "hard work" OR a rewardable trait.

My point here is many of you are so caught up in the "they owe me" mindset that you do NOT see opportunity anywhere. You literally psyche yourself out so you are blinded by any opportunity. Someone says "Hey, you have a business idea?, Awesome, what's stopping you from pursuing it". You say "I am stuck in a 9-5 man and they don't appreciate me" What does that have to do with an opportunity to better yourself or your situation? Any wtf are you browsing reddit, or watching TV, or playing a video game? Because you've convinced yourself the deck is stacked? Seriously?

Opportunity is not something handed to you, it is created. You have to look for it, you have to work for it.

I started 4 businesses while working full time over an 8 year period when I finally said enough was enough. The first three failed. The one I own now, has made me rich. I risked, sacrificed and failed and repeated 3 times. I made it happen. I knew what I wanted to achieve would take sacrifice and hard work and I did it anyway.