Why is it that some people can position themselves to be in key positions?  The ability to always be in the right place at the right time seems easy to these people.  It seems as if they can leap from one wildly successful venture to another with seemingly little effort.  Maybe there lucky breaks involved, but largely, their successes are attributed to preparation.

Sometimes we see many magazine articles that document the wild successes of some entrepreneur.  So many articles and news stories pertain to Elon Musk, who rose from a founding member of PayPal, to forming companies that are disrupting the automobile industry (Tesla), space flight (SpaceX), and even the transportation system (Hyperloop One).  Why does it seem that he can do no wrong in terms of business success?  How is he able to leap from one venture to the next and revolutionize an industry?

Those who are able to rapidly take advantage of an opportunity are always better prepared.

Continuous Learning

Successful people are students of life.  Many notable entrepreneurs are famous from dropping out of school.  Others went the full length of formal education to receive multiple PhD’s.  Curiosity and the desire to learn new things, all link these people together.  They are never satisfied with their current knowledge and experience.  They learn their field and industry sector, but also diversify their knowledge to always grow and improve across the spectrum of life.

Productive Failing

Anyone who claims they have never failed, have never pushed the edge of their abilities, forever in their comfort zone.  Early aircraft engineers designed new airplanes and theories, and many ended in failure, tragic at times.  But they learned and they improved.  In less than seventy years, we went from the first powered flight to landing on the moon.  Plans and projects hit snags.  There will always be times of budget shortfalls, legal challenges, or failures of design.  Failures will happen, and may occur frequently, but those who can learn the lesson will keep improving.  These experiences gained from these failures will not only cause personal growth, but also improve knowledge.

Planning

It is not enough to simply have knowledge and experience.  Many life coaches teach individuals to always have an elevator pitch ready.  Someone who seeks a job may encounter someone who may have a great opportunity, and will be able to answer questions that may land a new job.  Perhaps an entrepreneur may be able to impress an investor to get a new company off the ground.  Successful individuals will not walk around with actionable plans in large binders, nor will they spend all their time creating business plans for some just in case scenario.  However, they always have a direction they want to go, and not just see things as they are, but as they can be.  They will have the ability to see an opportunity before others, and will have the mindset to take actions early.

There is no absolute guarantee for leaping on an opportunity and encountering success.  It is a culmination of all the little things in life that add to experience and knowledge.  When these people see an opportunity, they are more likely to achieve success.